Page 46 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

Grace

Having a farasie style bonfire party on a colony world, listening to live alien music sung acapella style from the throats of a species that communicated in whistled song, was exactly the sort of adventure Grace always wanted from her life. And it was everything she could hope it might be.

She chose one of her favorite dresses that she brought down with her – a flowy, fluttery, white dress with little flowers embroidered on the hem and at the squared neckline.

Goldie and Garnet had dressed up with her, the two of them donning their own pretty outfits – a cute, spring green romper for Goldie, and a slinky, sexy red number for Garnet.

The three of them, together, went out to meet the guys chatting and laughing like the oldest of friends.

They walked out of their room to find that Rok was sitting in the hallway, waiting for them.

The big guy had not dressed up.

None of the guys did, as it turned out. Rok led them outside to where the others were waiting.

They were all still wearing their gray jumpsuits and black shirts.

What Grace had come to realize was their unofficial uniform.

Having been in the business of starships, she knew for a fact that those outfits were the cheapest, mass produced, easily tailored to any body type clothes they could have bought.

And probably exactly why they bought them in the first place.

The only one not wearing that getup was Loyalty. He was in his own clothes. Which, admittedly, weren’t much better. The army green, cargo style pants and plain gray shirt were so boring, they might as well have been the jumpsuit, black shirt combo.

They hadn’t at all tried to dress up. The others were just kind of standing there, but Loyalty was chatting with the twins – who were listening to him with disturbingly rapt expressions – as the girls approached.

They all turned at the same moment, their conversations cutting off as they instead focused on them.

“Well, look at you lovelies!” Trove said, hands on his hips, grinning at them.

Tanin didn’t say anything, just held out his hand. Which Garnet took, practically melting into his side, as his other arm went possessively around her waist.

Grace looked around. Disappointed. “Where’s Sway?”

“Vweet took him,” Vytln grunted from where he stood, leaning against the wall. “Said we could meet up with him later.”

“Oh.” Grace tried, and failed, to not sound bummed about that. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t looking forward to him appreciating her in her pretty dress.

“Don’t worry, lovelies!” Trove chuckled, taking her and Goldie by the arms. “Until your males come for you, I shall be happy to escort you wherever you like to go. There’s a whole courtyard just for the party, and a whole group of farasie unprepared for the site of you.”

Grace chuckled and let him lead her along.

Trove preened, exclaiming how he was the luckiest of males to be escorting two such fine females.

Tanin led the pack, Garnet at his side. The others, as Grace suspected, formed something like a protective ring around them.

Rok and Vytln at the rear, one avanava twin to each side.

They were among such a peaceful species, but they weren’t taking any chances.

And Grace had never felt so safe, or so much like she belonged, in her life.

The open courtyard Trove mentioned was much bigger than she imagined, with a large, shallow, rectangular pool in the middle, fountains spraying up in even intervals down the center.

Around the pool was so much open space, leading up to the businesses that lined the streets.

Not quite enclosed buildings, not quite stalls, but a mixture of both.

They were selling a variety of treats, goodies, toys, and games for passersby to partake in.

Tall columns interspersed between them held up lanterns that cast a warm, romantic glow over everything, and also held up massive vines with heart shaped leaves that were yellow-green in the center but pink at their edges.

It was beautiful. It smelled like heaven – fresh and clean, just a bit floral, just a bit of the sea. The many farasie calling out and talking created a lovely melody that filled the air, but didn’t quite cover the actual song coming from the front.

Because there, at the head of the courtyard, on a large, raised dais, was a massive bonfire.

It burned with a bright orange flame, tinged with green.

In front of the fire, a choir of farasie had gathered and were singing their hearts out.

It was beautiful. Totally unearthly. The difference between an average farasie whistling and professional singers belting was breathtaking.

And, as they approached, Grace could see that it wasn’t just a proper choir. Standing in front, slightly apart but still singing along with them, was Vweet and-

“Sway!” Grace called out, pulling her arm from Trove’s.

Without thinking about it, she was jogging forward, smiling.

Because Sway wasn’t wearing his jumpsuit. And he was singing! He looked uneasy, like he was uncomfortable in such an unfamiliar situation-

But he also looked so good !

Someone – Vweet, probably – had given him farasie style clothes.

It was a stark difference from the gray jumpsuit.

The white clothing was light, airy, and delicate.

And revealing. The top was two pieces of white fabric draped over his shoulders, crossing over his chest, then held on his waist by a braided belt before trailing down his front, completely revealing his legs.

They did the same on his back, though where the two pieces parted, his long, feathery tail was pushed through, no doubt as a means to display it, though he still kept the feathers tightly pinched.

It was the first time she’d seen his legs bare.

Farasie legs up to the knee had no feathers, but instead had rough, almost scaley skin.

Similar to bird legs, though they were thick and muscular.

Especially the males. It was similar to the skin across his knuckles, meant to absorb blows.

He had braided sandals on his feet, though he likely didn’t need them as his skin would be very tough there.

His body revealed that way, it was suddenly much more obvious how muscular Sway was in comparison to the others of his species, especially Vweet.

The teal male was lean as well, but it was in a more slender, delicate way.

His was the body of a dancer, meant to appear slight and toned.

Whereas Sway’s body was more like that of a swimmer, tight but muscular.

Especially in his thighs and calves that she could really appreciate now that they were bare.

And he was singing!

He didn’t notice her approach immediately, focused as he was on the holodisplay coming from Vweet’s combot. She didn’t recognize the style of writing displayed, but she also didn’t really care, because Sway was singing!

She could pick his voice out easily, even amongst all the others surrounding her. Partially because she was listening for it, only really caring about how he sounded. But also because he sounded fundamentally different from everyone else.

There was a roughness to his tone, a husky crooning quality.

The kind of tone that belonged in a smoky jazz bar, playing on a piano that was perfectly out of tune.

That wasn’t, she knew, how a farasie was supposed to sound.

She imagined that, were it not for the life he lived, Sway wouldn’t sound like that at all.

But he did, and she kind of loved the imperfect, rough sound. Surrounded by the pure bell tones of everyone else’s whistle, it was even more defined and all the better for it.

Then, finally, he caught sight of her coming towards him.

His voice cut off as he turned, staring at her with blatant appreciation.

She was going to stop in front of him, maybe reach for his hand, but he opened his arm at the last moment and snagged it around her waist, pulling her into him.

And she went so naturally, like she had meant to throw herself into his arms the entire time.

“Look at you,” he hummed, his hand trailing up her back, making a deep sound of appreciation when, in doing so, he felt the open back hidden by her hair. “You’re beautiful, Grace.”

She smiled, running her hands down his chest. Enjoying both the softness of his feathers and the silkiness of his new outfit. “You clean up real nice yourself. I like it.”

There! His crest was twitching. Just barely starting to rise. She saw a stripe of the colors hidden underneath and her heart began pounding like he was flashing her something naughty.

Vweet began whistling – speaking his native tongue that, while beautiful, was annoying. Only because it was rather rude. He knew she couldn’t understand him. He was deliberately choosing to not include her in whatever he was saying.

But then Sway answered him in Standard. “No. I’d rather stay with my crew. Thank you though.”

Vweet didn’t appear upset by the rejected invitation. He inclined his head, gave Grace a polite smile, then turned and left. Sway tightened his arm around her before approaching the others that had hung back, waiting for him to return. Like they already knew he would.

Grace stayed clutched to his side as they walked together. Not all that dissimilar, she thought, to how Garnet was clinging onto Tanin. That parallel just made her want to know, more, how farasie went about mating each other.

Human ‘mating’ practices were almost completely cultural.

There wasn’t really anything biologically imperative they needed to do to ensure they bonded.

And since they were so bad at recognizing their own mate bonds, they could, and frequently did, join together even without one.

Aside from the good old fashioned in and out, humans didn’t need anything to successfully reproduce.