Page 25 of Kailirex (Brides of the Mylos #6)

CHAPTER 25

KAILIREX

I went back to the bed, picking up the one bag she hadn’t yet emptied out. Inside was a pair of sandals for myself, as well as what the sign at the store had said were slippers but which Jason and his family insisted were flip flops, one pair in each of the four sizes the same as our sandals. Thee two that wouldn’t fit my beloved we’d either return or donate, as promised, right along with the rejected sandals.

My sandals were not only clipped to the hangar they’d been on with two pincer grips but also with two annoying strong filaments of plastic that fastened onto themselves making a loop. I growled in frustration as I tugged,

“Oh! Do I need to see if the desk has a pair of scissors we can borrow?” my bride asked me, as she came to stand beside me.

“No need,” I said, willing the tips of my claws out from below my nail bed and swiped the annoyances away.

“I was not expecting that,” she said, peering at my hands in interest. “I knew part of the mating display included claws but I thought they came out from under the regular looking fingernail.”

“That is how it works for many Mylos,” I admitted, pulling out the tissue paper stuffed inside, then sitting down on the crowded bed to put the sandals on my feet. “My maternal heritage made it so I was born with these claws instead. It’s the more human looking nails and the fact that my claws retract at all that are from the Mylos part of my genetic code.”

“Wow! So your mom’s claws don’t retract at all?”

I shook my head, standing up, having fastened the last sandal. “No. Her people keep them filed short, both on the hands and feet.” She glanced down at my feet, looking disappointed to not see small, black claws peeking out from my toes, so I willed them to pop out before retracting them.

“That is so bad ass,” she said, looking enthralled. I kissed her cheek then, because really, could she be any more perfect? I was certain not.

Giving her my arm, I picked my room key back up and stuffed it into the pocket of my board shorts. “Shall we?” I asked.

“Let’s,” she replied, with a teasing glint in her eyes.

Despite the relatively early hour and the fact that it wasn’t a weekend, the bar was pretty full. We managed to snag seats at a table with a view of the beach; however, we had to wait for someone to clear away the glasses and small dirty plates before we could sit. Once that was accomplished, I walked over to the bar, ignoring the blatant stares from several of the human tourists. The bar staff had obviously been forewarned by their employers as they didn’t look surprised to see a tall, green alien walking amongst them.

I gave the bartender our order and watched as he expertly made us our mai tais.

“Would you mind if we took a picture with you?” he asked. “I like to get one with every Mylos who comes through on my shift.”

I smiled. “Sure.”

I took our drinks and we posed, turned so that his coworker got us facing the camera.

“Mahalo nui,” he said as his coworker handed him his phone back. “Would you like a copy?”

I decided I did and asked if he would take one of my bride and I for us, explaining the promise we’d made to Mom and Dad.

“You bet!” he exclaimed, turning to his co-worker. “Ray, watch the bar for a moment, will you? I’ll just be a sec.”

“My pleasure,” Ray replied. “Just come right back and don’t stop to talk story. It’s going to be really hopping soon.”

“I’m Jake, by the way,” our bartender said. Then he laughed, tapping his name tag as he came out from behind the bar. “I forgot mine, so that's why it says Lottie. She no longer works here, went back to the mainland, so I borrowed her old tag. We get in trouble if we aren’t wearing one.”

I laughed. As we approached our table, Stella eyed the pair of us questioningly.

“He offered to take the picture so we can send it to Mom and Dad,” I explained and she smiled warmly at the young man beside me.

“Thank you!” she exclaimed, reaching to take her drink from me.

“Why don’t you sit down next to her and you both lean in, taking a sip while cheek to cheek?” Jake suggested.

It sounded like an excellent pose, so we did as he suggested.

“Awesome. I managed to get that palm off to the side and the beach behind you clearly in the frame. And now how about holding them up as if making a toast to the camera?”

He took a couple more pictures after that, then quickly airdropped all of the photos to my cloud account.

“Mahalo nui,” I said, Stella echoing me.

“A'ole pilikia,” he replied with a smile and a wave before hurrying back to relieve the beleaguered Ray back at the bar.

“Did that mean ‘You’re welcome’?” she asked me and I nodded. She hummed thoughtfully as she took a sip of her drink. “That’s given me an idea. I know I’ve not been hired to work on the show yet, if I ever am, and you can feel free to tell me it’s not workable, but what if the show includes some Hawaiian language segments?” She pursed her lips, deep in thought. “And for broadcast in states and territories with other native languages, branch out so they have their tongues instead? Or would that be too complicated?”

“That is the most marvelous suggestion,” I told her. “Before we go, I’ll reach out to the Kamehameha School aboard the fleet. As for the other languages, I’ll have Xeranos put me in touch with the various tribes.”

She looked ecstatic. “So it’s not impossible?”

“Not at all,” I smiled at her over the rim of my glass. I took a sip, loving the tart but sweet fruity flavor that burst over my tongue. “We can distribute it so that on streaming platforms, all versions are selectable, and local public broadcast stations will receive those with local native language segments only. We were already going to do the same with Spanish, to accommodate Spanish speakers as that is the language most commonly spoken in Puerto Rico, only with the main segments dubbed into Spanish and the second language as English. Both versions would be broadcast each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.”

Her eyes shone at the revelation. “So when you start broadcasting in other countries, the dub would be localized once again, with English and Mylos as the secondaries.”

“Well, Mylos and any indigenous tongues particular to their regions, for one broadcast and with English in the second.”

She squealed. “Oh, I hope I get to work on this! It is even better than I’d imagined for my own show!”

I smiled, then tapped on my kunnarskyn, accessing my cloud. I quickly had Xeranos forward the pictures to the tablet I knew Mom would have been issued by now. Moments later, my kunnarskyn vibrated with a voice comm. I answered, seeing it was Eric.

“Hi! Just to let you know, they totally pulled a fast one!” Eric laughed, sounding immensely happy. “We got up here and they checked Dad right into sickbay, asked us to go to our guest quarters and they’d call us as soon as Dad was all settled. Then, just before we got the pics you guys just sent, they told us he was getting the nanites now instead of tomorrow. In fact, they’d already given them to him and he’s doing great.”

Mom’s voice came over the comm. “They said they did it now so we wouldn’t have to sit and worry all night! And this place is really something! They have food replicators just like on Star Trek!”

Eric laughed. “Mom and Pop have already made us all the fanciest coffees you could ever think of and had it make corned beef hash to see if it was as good as Pop’s.”

“I thought you were going to eat the stuff in the fridge!” Stella admonished.

“We will. They said Dad will be home in a few hours, so we decided to have it as a late dinner.”

“Oh, okay.”

“It looks wonderful there!” Mom called out. “Are you having a good time?”

“A better one now that I know Dad really is okay. Call or message us again when he’s out,” Stella demanded.

“I’ll take pictures of us all eating dinner,” Piloris piped up.

“You go have some more fun! I wish we could all be there with you. I always did want to visit Hawaii.”

“Ask Piloris to take you to Mylos Shore,” I said.

“Mylos Shore? What’s that?” Pop asked.

“Oh! I think I know!” Eric exclaimed.

“Let it be a surprise,” Stella told him.

“What? Why?” Pop asked, causing Piloris, Eric, Stella, and I to laugh.

“You’ll see,” I promised him.

“I’ll take them in the morning,” Piloris promised. “It’s a plate lunch day tomorrow, so I’ll order some as soon as we’re done talking here.”

“Plate lunch day?” Stella mouthed at me.

“Tell you after,” I mouthed back and she nodded.

“We’ll let you go. Sounds like we need beach wear ourselves,” Eric chuckled.

“Bye! Love you!” Mom called out.

“Aloha!” Eric and Piloris chorused.

“Aloha!” Pop added just as we said it back.

I ended the comm, then reached over to wipe away a stray tear from my beloved’s face.

“Are you alright? We can go back.”

“I’m more than fine,” she sniffled. “And so is Dad. I mean, I knew they said he would be, but to know he’s there and the nanites are doing their thing and he really is, well, I feel like someone took a huge boulder off of me.”

I nodded in understanding. “Then it will be even better when they send the pictures later.”

“Yeah.” She took a sip of her mai tai. “Mm! This tastes even better now that I’ve heard from them.”

I nodded in understanding. I had only just met them, but I, too, felt a deep connection already forming, intertwined with that of me and my mate. I did indeed feel lighter, despite knowing with unwavering certainty that he would respond well to what was routine throughout the rest of Galactic society.

“So, do you wish to go back as soon as we can after the wedding, or would you like to stay? I could see if Xeranos could book us hotels on all the different islands and then perhaps we could do an island cruise back, taking it all the way to California or Vancouver.”

“Like a honeymoon in advance?”

“Or a ‘get to know you better’ time,” I said. “Though I have no trouble being persuaded in doing honeymoon activities.”

“But what about your obligations with the show?”

“I can have a Mylos datapad sent down, one for each of us. In fact, if you like, and if Xeranos can arrange it, we could invite everyone along.”

It was as if a thousand suns lit up from her smile. ”You’d do that?”

“I’d do anything for you,” I told her.

“Then, yes, let’s. And Mom and I can look at wedding packages together. Would we still be able to go to Europe to get married in a castle?”

“Yes, but we might have to put off our actual honeymoon until after the first season has wrapped.”

“I’m good with that," she said, “especially as we can advance our honeymoon activities a little. Um, how about we do the hotel visits without them, and then they join us on the cruise?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, letting me know exactly why she thought it was a good idea.

“Xeranos!” I said into my comm.

“Yes, Kailirex?”

I quickly explained what we wanted.

“Give me a moment to check the hotel booking systems and with the cruise line.” A few seconds went by. “Yes. I’ve just arranged it all. I’ve notified Piloris that the humans within the party will need to pose for me so I can do a biometric data chip as well as take a photo for their Mylos identification cards. I’ll need to send down a data pad for you so you can use it to do the same for Stella. That way, no one can get the idea that they need a visa, as simply being Mylos gives visa free travel literally everywhere, though I wouldn’t recommend traveling to some locations due to local government policies and political tensions in those regions. Your first stay after the wedding will be on the other side of Oahu. It coincides with Klora and Adrian wedding which has a Hawaii Five-0 theme. He’s invited everyone already here for this wedding to come join them. The meal immediately after is at a shrimp truck that is apparently run by the male whose character on the show ran an identical one.”

“Kamekona!” Stella squealed, bouncing a little in her seat.

“We’ll be there. Stella looks far too excited about the shrimp truck to give that a miss.”

“Da ta da,” she began singing and to my surprise, patrons and wait staff close by began singing it along with her. It then spread like a vocal wave all the way across the bar, growing louder.

“Da da tah!” they finished on a crescendo.

“That was the theme song to the show,” Xernaos informed me.

“I think I shall have to look it up,” I said.

“Woohoo!” she crowed. “Eric and I watched it every week when the reboot first came on. Hey, Xero, can you set us up with an itinerary so we can visit all the places they had cases? Well, easy enough to get to without being a nuisance and notable enough to be a not to be missed place.”

“We can always come back to see the rest,” I promised her, “as our schedule will allow. We are only an hour away by shuttle, after all.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever quite get used to that,’ she mused.

“I can indeed. Would you like me to start the itinerary starting from after tomorrow?”

“Oh! Yes, please!”

“Consider it done. I’ll have the datapad sent over in the morning as the scholarship center has some in store that are surplus exactly for situations like this.”

“Mahalo nui, Xero!” my bride said, lifting her glass in a toast before gulping down the last of her drink. “Oopsie. I think I’m ready for another!”

“Aloha, then,” Xeranos said, ending the comm.

“Perhaps just the one before getting into the hot tub,” I said diplomatically.

“Okay. But another one before we go to bed!”

“I’m certain the restaurant will have cocktails available,” I said.

“Hooray! She said and I shook my head. My bride was definitely a lightweight when it came to alcohol. I finished the last of my own and then stood, holding my hand out to her. “How about a romantic stroll along the beach before we go to the pool area?” I suggested. “I bet we can find a shave ice stand.”

“Yes!”

I looped my arm around her waist, leading her out of the bar. Perhaps virgin cocktails at dinner would be best, or perhaps I could subtly ask them to reduce the amount of alcohol. Yes. I could call ahead and ask for that note on our reservation, asking them not to mention it. Something told me she might find that insulting. I bent down, kissing the tip of her nose.

“Let’s go then.”

“Aloha!” she called out as we passed the bar on our way out, waving at Ray and Jake wildly, who laughed and gave small waves back.

“This is the best day of my life,” she declared, snuggling into my side.

I dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. It was mine too, truly, as it was the day I met her, and gained the most wonderful second family. Tomorrow we’d begin the next chapter of our lives - attending the wedding of my friends and introducing her to those important to me within the Fleet, then moving on to deepening our bond, followed by relaxing and integrating as a family unit while on the cruise. Then a flight to wherever she, Mom, and Xeranos booked our wedding. Just one more thing remained - getting my team to see how she deserved a place at the Playtime Fleet table.

My kunnarskyn beeped. I paused, seeing it was Ritl.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s my assistant. I need to take this.”

“‘S’okay,” she said, all signs of mild tipsiness suddenly gone. “I hope nothing’s wrong.”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt your time with your mate, but I thought you’d like to know that we’ve received over a thousand applications for acting roles in the show, and a further two hundred qualified applications for production roles. Um, so, while starting the vetting process of the production role applications, we looked at your mate’s application as earlier we’d seen you mark it as a tentative vote of yes from you, as a senior intern. We’d like to amend that to senior preschool education advisor.”

I looked at Stella.

“Yes!” she shouted. “I taught preschool for four years!”

“We saw that,” Ritl laughed. “It’s why we put you forward for that, especially as you have priority points from already being resident within the Fleet.”

“You have my approval and vote,” I said, grinning at my mate. “Welcome aboard the Playtime Fleet, darling.”

“We’re excited to have you,” Ritl added, “I’ll, uh, let you both get back to your trip. Aloha.”

He ended the call but it didn’t matter. I was busy being tackled by my very excited mate.

“I’m in!” she shouted excitedly. “All my dreams have come true! And it’s because of you!”

“This part is all on you,” I corrected her. “You earned the position.” I kissed her soundly, not caring that people were staring at us lying here on the beach. “And if you hadn’t applied, we’d never have met.”

“It was destiny,’ she said, kissing me back before rolling off. “We better go for that walk,” she whispered.

“Unless we want to be arrested for doing something we shouldn’t on the beach, yes,” I agreed.

She giggled, and we continued our walk into our future, hand in hand.

The end (for now)