Part 7: Thaw

New Alice Springs. That was what the humans called their two-thousand strong settlement out in Da-hwinn. As Mae drove past the snowy contours of the roads around her, she took inventory of what had changed since she last saw it. Six Terran months ago, a frustrated session musician came here. She drove a vehicle that could barely make the journey, deathly anxious about meeting the strange human who responded to her ad. Those people didn't exist anymore. Firebrands stood where they did. Raring to slay the isolationist beast that had grown behind those standoffish, snow topped walls.

Mae killed the engine, leaving the stinging touch of freezing weather to poke through the walls. The sensation was spine tingling. Snowfall was rare on Tebeish, and the layer that had settled was the kind of thin and crunchy blanket that she loved. Little human teeth chattered to her left. Mae craned her neck to the side and meet her freezing, furless friend.

“Cold?" She asked him sweetly.

Toby seized some cozy black fabric from a hanger. The newfound heat made him shudder all on its own. “Fucking frigid, but I'll live." He struggled against his teeth to say.

Even chattering and trembling like he was, seeing Toby always calmed her nerves and made the world feel right. In some ways, nothing had changed. He was an adorable little thing from afar and a beautiful work of art up close. Yet she felt so many things she'd never felt before, and even then there were still doubts. There was a chance that what she felt around him wasn't real, or, worse yet, might be a fetish. She could only hope their visit to the human settlement gave her the answer she needed.

“How about we check on him?" Toby probed her, bobbing his head towards the opposing cabinet.

Cass was asleep during midday hours, as per the road crew's rota. Reaching him would be a bit of a challenge. He would want his mech, which meant Mae needed to step into the space between the cabinets in order to reach him without taking a fall. Tough as it was, she had a settlement to visit, and the grace and balance of a feline ensured that she didn't faceplant the moment she slithered out onto the waiting floor.

She held her right hand out to meet the edge of Toby's cabinet. Her friend boarded her hand so quickly that she almost didn't register it, but she reeled him into her waiting chest not long after. Toby was the person she treasured the most, and for once, carrying him made her feel no fear. However, the person she treasured most had a friend, and New Alice Springs only permitted entry to 'persons of inordinate stature' when they were accompanied by two locals. With uncommon self-assurance, she knocked on Cass's cabinet. Soon enough, he crawled out of bed and thrust the door open, looking as cranky and groggy as her mother during one of her 'moods'.

“Can't you to just let me sleep?" He yawned without a care.

Toby tugged her shirt, nodding towards the cabinet, and Mae hovered her hand close. Without needing to be told, Toby walked as close to Cass as he could without stepping off, urging his friend closer. “Hey there Cass. I know you need your beauty sleep, but we're heading to New Alice Springs and-"

“We? As in the both of you?" Cass's cruel laugh hurt to hear. “No, no. You're not dragging me along for this travesty."

Now she was worried. She expected to have to do some haggling on such short notice, but Cass's outright refusal was a crying shame. Important as she thought this was for her and Toby, she would never force a human to go along with something he didn't consent to. Toby didn't concede just yet, having leaned himself onto the hinge of the cabinet door to address Cass directly.

“We need two humans for this, Cass. You're the only other human we know." Toby insisted.

“Of all the half thought out bull! They'll run you out of town, lad." Cass bit back, “If snow shoes here don't step on somebody first!"

It hurt that he had such little faith in her. She knew the risks just as much as he did, but that only made her less dangerous. At least Toby didn't share his outlook.

“Mate, you really think she's gonna go crushing things left and right? You're making up excuses."

“You'd know about making excuses." The spite on Cass's face could've made her fur stand on end.

Toby jolted back from sheer disgust. Cass's jabs were always vicious, but that one must have cut deep. “Cass, I know I still owe you that conversation, but for fucks sake. I need you to do me this one favor, alright? I'm not making excuses anymore." Toby told him, trying in vain to calm him down.

“You two're delusional." Cass's voice cracked, “Turn this shite arse van around right now, or so help me-“

“Cass?" An airy voice called out behind her.

Endi had been dragged into the waking world by their argument. Her matted brown fur a testament to the sleep she was supposed to be having.

“Didn't mean to wake you, Endi. Apologies" Cass explained, sounding much more sheepish now that Endi had entered the fray. She turned her drooping gaze towards her charge, filled with a mix of tiredness and disappointment.

“Go with them." Endi commanded, voice straining from trying to stay awake.

“But Endi, they're talking nonsense." He stammered like a lost child. “You and us just don't walk the same ground. It's why we have mechs."

“Would you say the same thing if I wanted to go?"

Something about hearing that firmly shattered his resolve. Cass couldn't put up a fight for much longer. “I- No. No, I wouldn't be."

Having cracked through Cass's steely cynicism for a moment, Endi laid on the sweetness as thick as molasses. “Then can you go with them? For me?"

With no energy left to argue, he limped away into his cabinet. The door slammed shut, but the rustling of debris didn't evade Mae's ears. By the time the cagey bass tech returned he wore half his body weight in winter clothing. Anything below his nose was covered, until he pulled the scarf down to address them.

“Put me in my mech."

From there, Cass made his way to Mae's hand without complaint. He huddled up a good distance from Toby, a wall of animosity between them. Mae tiptoed her way through the vehicle with painstakingly precise footwork, so as not to step on errant drum parts and drop the two humans. Cass never spoke a word. After nearly scraping her ankle on a jutting pedal, she reached the slumbering mech. Mae held her gentle hand up to the waiting cockpit. Cass rolled in, shut the hatch behind him, tackled the door open and stomped his way to freedom. Toby shook in her hands from the ensuing blast of cold air, but he gave her the signal to move. Mae held the human close as she slinked out of the vehicle to join their co-worker.

The time for final preparations had come. Cass parked his mech and walked free. Mae let Toby down to join him and pried her earpiece out, deactivating her translator. An English speaker in a city full of them wouldn't need one.

Now that New Alice Springs was only a stone's throw away, Mae was humbled more and more by the sight of it. The walls barely reached her neck, yet they housed over a thousand people equal to herself. Of course, they didn't let just anybody into the premises. A wooden platform barely short of her waist served as the border check. In it sat a very bored guard, who became a very startled guard upon noticing her. Mae could faintly see dust coating one of the monitors as she knelt down to his level. She must have been their first visitor in a very long time.

“May I see your identification?" The guard pressed her, after he stockpiled some wherewithal.

With a small nod and a few deliberate taps on her interface, Mae's yutri gave the guard the full breakdown. Names, ages, citizenship, health checks, human handling certification. All present and accounted for. The guard checked. He double checked. He triple checked. Then the entrance to the settlement dragged itself open at long last. Hinges creaked, snow shook from the top and drizzled forth, and thus New Alice Springs could finally take them in.

“Enjoy your visit, Miss Delphin."

The guard immediately threw himself back into the fat lot of nothing he was up to. The situation she was in had a serendipity all its own. For once, Toby was the one walking on the ground and leading the way. She noted a small wobble in his gait. It had been so long since he walked on solid ground that he needed to acclimate to it again. Tragic.

New Alice Springs itself was full of conflicting feelings. Endearing and heartbreaking all at once. Each knee-high building looked boxy and ancient, as if unstuck in time. Cars she could carry one-handed dotted the roadsides, with wheels submerged in the settled snow. One larger vehicle roamed the miniature streets, engine smoking and sparking away, heavy blades pushing forward and rock salt drizzling behind it. A snow plow. The humans had invented them too. In some ways, she saw it as a symbol of what separated their people. Snow thin enough for her to dance in warranted heavy duty vehicles for the humans, vehicles she could kick around like toys. She had all the power here. It was dizzying.

“You alright?" Toby questioned her as he walked along.

“Yes, I'm just-“ While she was pondering, her tail had wandered enough to sweep days of snowfall clean from of the rooftops. She practically glued the thing to her back soon after, lest it sweep any unfortunate humans away as well.

“Overwhelmed."

--

Thus far, New Alice Springs wasn't far off from how Toby remembered it. Each home was a grab bag of suburban stereotypes, and every car was a pre-invasion erestal retrofit. If not for the towering walls that shielded them from the outside world, it could have been an ideal little slice of Earth. The snow didn't slow Mae down one bit. She left paw prints so deep that the frosted roadway resurfaced inside them. Citizens crawled out of the woodwork to gawk at the enormous visitor who trod their streets.

A scant few ignored her. A greater number turned tail and ran. But by and large, the pedestrians stared up in dumbfounded awe. That much was to be expected. But some rubbed their faces, or wiped their glasses, as if they were seeing things that weren't there. He knew interaction with the aliens was minimal, but it was like she fell so outside their daily routine that they couldn't fathom her very existence. He felt ill just thinking about it.

“Why are they looking at me like that?" Came the shaky voice above and behind him.

Mae wasn't stupid. She easily picked up on the looks people were giving her, and it must have been killing her. Hearing her voice crack with disappointment hurt him to his core, especially after that night under the tree.

“What'd you expect? You can squash their houses, love." Cass told her with an eyeroll.

Toby glared daggers at Cass. He still felt that protective instinct well up in him, no matter how silly it was to want to protect a woman ten times his size. Between those comments and what he tried to pull with Donny, Cass's attitude wore down on him. Fast.

“What are you babbling on about? She'd never-"

Cass tutted and shot an accusatory glance at the sidewalk dwellers. “'Course not, but they don't know that."

Looking back at the crowd only made Cass's words ring truer. One particularly crunchy step from Mae made most of the populous scurry away like startled rodents. Mae wouldn't have hurt a Terran fly if someone told her it was there. The fact that they were projecting these fears onto her of all people made him want to vomit. Then he realized something. Nobody in this crowd seemed familiar to him. Not at all. He used to live here. There should have been somebody, anybody he could remember. Toby turned back to Cass with a burning question on his mind.

“Wait a sec, Cass. Do you recognize anyone in the crowd?"

Cass thought on it for a moment, only for his face to sink in realization. “No. Not one of 'em."

Nothing could jog Toby's memory no matter how hard he tried. Every name and face he met here blurred together in a mush. This place had sucked the life out of him. He had no friends, no aspirations, no opportunity to grow, and he used to be fine with that. Not happy, just fine. Perfectly fine, as he'd told Mae whenever she wanted him to talk about his problems for once. Suddenly, the people in the crowd looked all too familiar.

He was looking at himself. The heavy lidded bricklayer that existed before Mae saved him from himself. And it seemed these people needed something just as drastic to change their ways. Toby jumped at the buzzing in his pocket. Blushing, gloveless hands whipped out his yutri, with none other than Saos badgering him for an audio call. Toby answered the AI's plea for attention, having the foresight to set the it to loudspeaker off the bat.

“Hey there, Saos." Toby barely masked his annoyance.

“Tobias! Would Mae'eliis happen to be with you?" She pried, tinny voice grating his every nerve.

“I'm here. What is it, Saos?" Mae cut in, having halted her stride to hover her face next to his.

“A kid from one of my other bands wants to talk. I'm switching the line over to him, so don't you dare hang up!"

The ham-fisted 'networking' attempts just didn't stop with Saos. Mae dreaded the upcoming conversation as much as he did, and yet they had to suffer though it all the same. Toby was a breath away from speaking his mind to her, consequences be damned. Either way, they didn't have long to wait before being passed to the other line. The speaker burst out with rattling cans and rustling plastic bags. The joker that Saos roped them into talking to must have been cleaning house.

“Hi there. Is this Sixth Eye?" A very male, very Canadian, voice asked them.

Toby couldn't believe his ears. Even without his awful slurring, there was only one person it could have been. “Andrew?"

Mae growled. The crowd panicked. Toby wondered if they'd have felt the same if they knew what happened that night. He wouldn't have been surprised if they did.

“Uh-huh, it's me." Andrew replied, nearly sounding ashamed of that fact. “I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry, dude. Sorry for everything I said about 'tokens.' Sorry for hitting you like I did. It was fucked up, and you didn't deserve it."

Toby hadn't anticipated hearing so much, as far as he could tell, genuine remorse from Andrew, but he could appreciate it. The guy wasn't a mini Hare'ker, at least, but the situation called for a second opinion. “l know you're sorry." He told him, keeping his voice level. “But you hurt someone else that night, too."

“Oh, you mean-" Andrew trailed off, more out of regret than fear.

Mae leaned herself into the yutri. Her fur crinkled against his coat and tickled his cheek. “Give me a full explanation, Andrew." She demanded. “Why did you hit my friend?"

For a moment, the air was devoid of conversation. The only sound being the winter breeze and the rustling of cans.

“I'm sorry. I was feeling small, OK?" Andrew struggled to say. “It was stupid, and wrong, but the pigeonholing was driving me up the fucking wall! No solid ground, no people your size to talk to. I needed something to react to me, before I jumped or whatever, y'know? It's no excuse, but I just- well..."

“Oh." Mae choked out with a confused whine.

Andrew's reasoning was uncomfortably close to his own. Embarrassingly so. If Toby could forgive himself for what happened, maybe he could forgive Andrew too. He just wanted to say it in person. Though, to his amazement, it seemed the chance came sooner than he thought. A white-haired man kicked the through the door of one of the homes on their left. His neck was crooked to pin a yutri to his shoulder, as the black bag he dragged behind him left a pungent trail of brown.

“Andrew?" Toby blurted out, disbelieving. “What are you doing right now?"

“Sobering up!" Andrew yipped over the phone, and the white-haired man in the distance mouthed along. “I'm taking all the beer in my house and throwing it in the trash. Why'd you ask?"

“Cause you might wanna look to your right?"

Toby hung up the moment the bag hit the floor. Not wanting to leave their flabbergasted acquaintance in a puddle of drink, Toby beckoned Andrew to them. As soon as the surprise wore off, Andrew bolted his way over. He seemed very happy to see them.

“Holy shit! What are you guys doing here?"

Toby was taken aback by the sudden enthusiasm. Though despite his prior misgivings, the good vibes he gave off spread more easily than they had any right to. “We're visiting. Changing hearts and minds. You?"

“Warren has me on an intervention." Andrew muttered, “It's working."

Andrew looked up and winced at Mae's stare. Toby couldn't imagine being so afraid of her anymore, but, regrettably, Andrew had only seen her when she was pissed at him. Just another of the many versions of her that existed to different people.

“Guys? I fucked up super hard, and I really wanna make it up to you. So, can I show you two around?" Andrew asked, nervousness enveloping him.

As far as Toby could tell, Andrew really did want to make amends. He had potential. He could change. Toby would have asked Cass and Mae if he could come along, but Cass robbed him of the chance.

“Lookie here. Two civvies to show you round! See ya."

“Huh? Cass, come back!" Toby demanded, without success.

Before Toby could rightly internalize what was going on, the other party was already halfway down the sprawling trail of Mae's paw prints. “You still owe me a chat, Tobias!" Cass yelled as he left them in the dust.

Toby was as irritated by Cass's exit as he was let down. He probably needed to see the settlement turn itself around more than anybody else. Toby hoped he wasn't a lost cause, but they had to focus on the big picture. He was stuck with Andrew now, and potential like his couldn't be wasted. After all, if he could grow, so could anybody in New Alice Springs.

--

A larger crowd of humans pooled around Mae and friends as the visit stretched on. They reacted mostly the same, with their disbelieving stares and tense little bodies. It horrified her. She was prepared for staring, but outright fear? That she couldn't deal with. The visit did have its nuggets of gold interlaced between the despair. For one thing, her nascent attraction to Toby had proven itself to be something far above some unindulged kink. Hundreds of human faces surrounded her, and not a single one could ever shine like his.

Then there was the curious development that had snuck up on them all. The children. She'd never seen human children in person, and in turn had sadly assumed they would fear her like their parents. But that wasn't true. By and large, they were far more eager to interact than the adults. One or two even tried to reach out to her, before being summarily held back by their parents. Despite it all, the sight gave her some confidence. If the children weren't scared, then there could have been a future for this place.

“...and that's the gym. Or... what was meant to be a gym." Andrew pointed to a half-made block of bricks out in the distance, a distressingly common sight so far.

“Andrew?" She sat to address the humans properly. “Why do the buildings look like this?"

Behind the sea of tiny homes lay stillborn leisure buildings. Scaffolded, rusting shells of pre-invasion cinemas, stores, and gyms. It already seemed excessive, but some even seemed to be duplicates of each other.

“Construction." Andrew spat out like a dirty word, “They roped half of our dumb asses into it. Nobody used these buildings, really, but we just kept building them till the bubble burst."

“Is this why you came to me?" She asked Toby.

His handsome little face scrunched up in hideous dread and embarrassment at his former self. “Yeah. I just lost my job. Brick laying was pretty much the only thing I was good at, other than music. Never thought I'd even have to see anyone who wasn't human."

“I don't understand." Mae told them, heartbroken. “Why would you leave your world if you didn't want to be around people like me?"

“Cause that's what they promised us." Toby sighed, head in his hands. “They didn't say it straight out. But low regulations? Minimal contact? The kind of homes we wish we had on Earth? It was a dream come true if you just wanted to run away from it all."

Andrew winced as Toby said his piece. He must have felt attacked. “Damn. Hurts when you say it like that, dude. But I guess this is what we wanted, eh? Look where it landed us."

Toby and Andrew fell silent, sullen with guilt. Some of the onlookers did the same. Now it all made sense to her. It was possible that they feared her not only for her size, but because she reminded them of what they tried so hard to escape from. It pained her to think that Toby had been the same. He'd come so far. He became the bravest person she'd ever met, and the man she cared for above any other. He just needed to take a chance. That may well have been the only thing that separated him from his fellows.

“Cindy, no!"

Shockingly, one of the curious children broke free of her mother's grasp. The little girl hurtled through the snow with speed that belied her size and age. If not for an unfortunate pratfall she'd taken in a paw print, her mother may not have caught her. Yet she didn't relent, even with snow caking her face and much stronger arms stealing her away.

“I wanna meet the kitty!"

“Come back home with mommy, Cindy. It's not safe."

“But, the kitty! She's so sad!"

“Please, it's safe!" Mae protested, earning the beady-eyed, discomforting stares of every human in the settlement.

Formerly, they would have been enough to send her into a panic, but Mae knew how to power through it. She thought to Toby. His wonderful voice. His caring hands. His beautiful eyes. That was the kind of energy she needed. For one moment, she needed to become like her little light. Someone who could push against impossible odds. Mae lay a forepaw on the ground before her, placidly watching the girl and her mother.

“Madame. Whatever you think of my kind, I promise that nothing will happen to your child."

Reluctantly, Cindy's mother let her child run free. With an eager gasp, Cindy leapt onto Mae's waiting hand with a gleeful cry of, “Big kitty!" Having a child in her hands was quite the fright. If adult humans were delicate, then Cindy was outright flimsy. Cautiously, Mae raised the child to eye level as Toby and Andrew took to calming her mother down.

“You're scared?" Cindy asked, quite puzzled.

“No, I'm- I'm just a little nervous, is all." Mae lamented.

The child in her hands still didn't understand. She adored Mae too much to do so. “But you're so big! And pretty!"

Mae was taken aback by the sudden compliments, ears swiveling and tail twitching behind her. Though she could sense that the adults had loosened up a bit. “So, you're not scared of me?" Mae chuckled.

Cindy shook her head, making her long hair spin and flutter.

“Grown-ups say big people are scary, but you're not scary. You're pretty!"

Overcome with building affection, Mae unabashedly nuzzled the little girl. She could make out a few gasps from the adults, but they were soon stifled by the giggling and purring that reverberated throughout New Alice Springs. The fear and misunderstanding were worth it for that moment of bliss, shared with the one little person who didn't want to turn and run. When she finally had her fill, Mae lay her hand on the road, and let Cindy return to her mother's arms.

“Thank you, Cindy. You don't know how much that means to me."

Toby took his rightful place in her palm, prompting Mae to hold his little form close to her chest. She could face them all. She could do anything if Toby was with her. “Hello. I'm Mae, and this is my best friend Toby. Any questions?"

Moments later, Mae was surrounded by a circle of curious humans. First came drip feed of general knowledge questions: Who were they? What did they want? Were they friends with Andrew? She was happy to answer them. Anything that let them see her as a person would help. Regardless, she was more than thankful when the real questions started pouring in.

“You play to the giants? How does that even work?" One older woman asked Toby, still comfortably seated in her palm.

“You could ask my bass tech, but he ran off with our mech." Toby laughed.

“So, you share a mech?" A second voice followed up.

“Nah, I don't use it. Nothing but hands and tables for me."

A rather round looking human pushed to the front of the audience, filled to the brim with exactly the kind of cynical doubt that had brought their settlement to the state it was in. “You walk around aliens without one? Isn't that illegal or something?"

“You're joking, right? Who told you that crap?" Toby demanded to know, horrified.

Mae felt about the same. Mechs were brilliant, and a triumph for human integration. And yet misinformation like this could fester around them. That was disconcerting all on its own.

“How do you even cope with being around them all the time?" Asked yet another voice.

“He can do it cause they're people, dude." Andrew told him firmly. “People like Mae, and you see how nice she is, don't you?"

The man backed down soon after. She never thought she'd see the day, but she was glad Andrew was here. Toby and Mae were still strangers to them. Andrew, however, seemed to be a bit of a hometown hero, and that held power.

“Haven't any of you been curious? Tried to meet people outside the walls?" Toby asked the crowd from on high.

The harsh silence that filled the area answered that question well enough. Or at least, it seemed that way at first.

“I did."

A woman with dark black hair shuffled through the crowd, seemingly about to drop dead from her nerves. A feeling Mae was well acquainted with. She gave the woman her tacit approval. Voices like hers often spoke with the most meaning.

“It was only online." The woman began, with a voice so shaky that the snow plow nearly drowned her out. “He's the nicest guy I've ever met, but I'm- He's so much bigger than me and, I just- I can't even use a mech because of my-“

“But you're still safe!"

Toby pat her hand. With a knowing nod, Mae brought her hand to the road as gently as she could. Toby slid off the pad with grace that only a seasoned veteran could possess. As soon as his feet touched the terrain, Toby met the shaking woman face to face. He was awfully good at that.

“What's your name?"

“Charlotte." She whinnied, rendered hopelessly shy now that Toby was so close to her.

“Did you see that, Charlotte?"

Charlotte clutched at a few strands of hair, looking sorely confused. “See what?"

“Me and Mae doing what we always do." Toby told her warmly, “She carries me. I give her little signals when I want off. We're both happy."

“Really?" Charlotte asked him, equal parts hopeful and stupefied.

“If you can't use a mech, that's fine. I can't either. But her and I? We met, and we managed. It just takes that first step if you wanna meet one in person, Charlotte. You have to take that first step."

Charlotte nodded, managing a small smile. Another heckler came barreling through, pushing past the poor woman to confront Toby directly. Andrew looked about ready to knock the man over if he tried something. If destiny had any fondness for her, then it wouldn't come to that.

“Why's the burden on us?" The man spat, “Why aren't the aliens making an effort?"

“But we are!"

Mae sounded a bit angrier than she was comfortable with, but she didn't let that stop her. The seed of something terrible grew in comments like those, and she had to kill it before it bore fruit. “We're making proxies. Human sized machines that let us walk among you, as your mechs do for us! Is that not making the effort?" Mae all but pleaded for the humans to understand. “The size difference can be horrible sometimes. I know this, but it's not impassable. Not when you're all so capable. And I refuse to believe that none of you have made friends outside these walls."

A murmur shot through the crowd. Faint at first, but soon etching its way through the younger citizens. Anybody over thirty was dead quiet, but she heard names, places and species from across the galaxy. Music to her ears.

“Look at this! All the progress you've made. You just need to take a chance! You're human beings, so beautiful, so inventive, and full of life. Please, don't close yourselves off any longer. Don't rob the galaxy of everything you can offer. You're better than this!"

The crowd muttered and whispered, and Mae couldn't pick any of it up. She had no idea if any of what they preached rang true to onlookers at all. But humans were people, and those people were finally talking about this. Even if hundreds heard the same thing and refused, it stood to reason that one person among them may yet have taken the plunge. Somebody had to. Somebody. Anybody.

The conversations came to a dead stop when a sputtering engine roared from down the road. The once mighty snow plow had plowed its last. Its front had turned black and burned out from stress. Mae immediately wanted to step in. A human needed help. Only trouble was, many more humans blocked her right of way. That simply wouldn't do.

“Excuse me! I need to move." She begged.

The crowd parted like waves. Now with a wide enough berth to reach to the driver, she darted through the snow, kicking up hefty white chunks on the way. The moment she reached the busted up plow, Mae crouched and kept her face level with the windshield.

“Are you alright?" She asked him, her tail dragging up snow behind her as it wandered.

The driver reacted with about as much bewilderment as she'd come to anticipate, but otherwise seemed quite thankful that somebody came for him. “Me? I'm great. Plow's buggered, though. No way she's moving again."

Mae couldn't help but feel bad for the humans here. Snow still smothered the streets, and none of it would be cleared without the plow. Then again, the man was only half right when he said it wouldn't move again. Engine failure and a lack of movement were two different things. The wheels were no worse for wear. The vehicle on the whole was about a third her size, and drumming left her with upper and lower body strength to spare. It didn't need an engine. It had her.

“Let me roll up my sleeves."

--

“You're fucking with me, right? You really dyed your hair because of a PlayStation game?" Toby asked Andrew, a brow raised.

“Hell yeah, dude. Dante from Devil May Cry? Fashion. Icon." Andrew doubled down, playing with his white locks, as he reclined into the passenger seat.

“And Lucy's Favourites? What's that about?"

Andrew huffed, smirked, and shook his head. “Owen's dog died back on Earth, so Warren named the band after her. Simple as that. Now, Sixth Eye?"

Toby tapped his hands along the steering wheel impatiently. It wasn't often people asked about the name. There wasn't much of a story to it, but, then again, Sixth Eye wasn't much of a name. “Uhh, yeah. Mae couldn't think of anything, so she jammed two random words together that can translate well."

Andrew muted a snicker. “That's so cute! 'Big kitty' couldn't think of a name!"

Andrew still wasn't one for tact, it seemed. He'd receive his reckoning when an enormous finger flicked his side of the snow plow. Andrew yelped. 'Big kitty' could still hear him, and she wasn't above having some fun at his expense. Mae had taken it upon herself to push the plow. She was hunched over. Keeping a good enough grip on the sides to put her weight behind it without rock salt splashing her.

The whole world could see her arms now that her sleeves were up high. A strange sight, yet between the streaking black stripes and the hints of well-built muscle beneath her fur, she dazzled all the same. Besides, he was the last person on Tebeish who'd ever tell her to cover herself up again. Otherwise, Mae had wrapped herself up in a non-English call with that Kamh'sen woman. Toby wasn't one to eavesdrop, so his translator stayed off. It seemed that nearly everyone wanted their eyeful. A good few people even waved at her. A gesture that he, Mae, and Andrew often returned.

Staring out into the waves of people had him thinking back to the family he left behind. He promised Mae that he'd be open. That he wouldn't ignore his problems anymore, and he'd been ignoring his parents for a very long time. He certainly didn't know how to contact people back on Earth, but somebody here had to. Toby was prepared to ask every single one of them, if need be. Starting with the man right next to him.

“Hey, Andrew. Do you know how to talk to people back on Earth?"

“Saos." Andrew told him casually, waving his yutri in his free hand. “She helped me start talking to my dad back in Halifax. Crazy ass holo-hyena can dig up anyone's contact details. Give her a ring."

“Ah." Was his short reply.

Saos. That was unfortunate. He was just planning to prod her about the human accommodation in their vehicle, so he'd likely be on her bad side. Now, against his wishes, he had a choice. His comfort or his family?

“What's made you wanna phone home all of a sudden?" Andrew asked him, sliding the yutri back into his coat pocket. “There someone back home you wanna tell the good news?"

“News? What news?" Toby pressed back, completely mystified.

“Uhh. You and Mae, dude! Don't even pretend you guys aren't an item."

“Huh? We're-“ Toby stopped himself.

He wanted to deny it and tell Andrew he was being stupid, but he was closer to the truth than even Toby really knew. Since that night under the tree, Toby felt something for her. It was worlds away from how he'd felt about any past lovers, female or male. A warmth inside that made him weak even thinking about her. Whatever it was, it was taking over.

“Oh. Haven't you told her?" Andrew asked him, some pity in his voice.

“I dunno what to say." Toby moaned, chin leaning on his palm. “I feel something, yeah. Fuck if I know what to call it, but, God, I can't think straight around her anymore. That's why I need a name for it, before I can tell her. I'm not fucking things up between us just cause I jumped the gun."

“Wise words. In my humble opinion, though? You'd totally make it work." Andrew encouraged him. “With the kind of looks you give each other? Not a doubt in my mind."

“Thanks, man." Toby nodded, feeling some of the weight he carried roll off his back.

Mae and the plow came to a stop. The road was clean and clear, with a new glaze of rock salt to keep them that way. Cars began to push along the road again, returning life to the city with every yard they travelled. Mae gently knocked on the door with a knuckle, and Toby slid himself into her waiting paw pad. Andrew crawled into the driver's seat, a cheeky grin on his face as he poked his head out the open door.

“We're off. It's been fun, Andrew." Toby shook hands with his newest friend.

As soon as they left each other's grip, Andrew hopped out the vehicle and addressed everybody watching the spectacle. “Hey, everybody! Give these guys a real goodbye, will ya?"

A great chunk of people said their farewells. He and Mae returned the unexpected affection, as the immense entryway scraped open behind her. When they left the colony behind and screeching steel sealed the humans away, Mae fell to the floor. She practically buried Toby into her cheek. She couldn't help it.

“Oh, Toby!"

She stroked and nuzzled him like there was no tomorrow, purring deeply all the while. Toby still wasn't used to how physical she had become. He wouldn't have missed it for the world. This was what he'd wanted from her for so long, and it was glorious. Still, her affections slowed, and it became clear that Mae had something she needed to tell him.

“I spoke to Kamh'sen." She informed him, no worse for wear after having pushed a heavy duty vehicle for so long. “She wants to meet us at a café in Da-hwinn. She promised more information about proxies, too."

“She wants me to come?"

Da-hwinn. The alien city that housed New Alice Springs. Toby could see its high rises everywhere he looked, but he'd never even thought about going. Contractual obligations snuffed those dreams.

“I do, too." Mae frowned, like she tended to when something bothered her. “Toby, I know it's against the rules, so I won't force you to do this."

She was right about that. They were likely on thin ice with the label after the fight with Andrew. There was a chance that Sixth Eye, and Mae's dream, may not have survived the fallout if they pushed their contract too far. But Mae wanted to do something good, and even if some disgusting contract that defied everything the UTO strived for stood in the way.

“I'm going." Determination filled Toby's voice. “I'm not sitting back and letting this happen anymore."

“Are you sure?" Mae questioned him. “Most of the people there won't have seen a human before."

That was true. But in the end, that fact only motivated him further. Integration was a two-way street. If he could convince someone, anyone, that humans were people just like them, then he was doing his part as a public figure.

“I'm perfectly sure. What's happening here is fucked up, and we need to help any way we can."

Toby immersed a wandering hand in her fur. The body heat she gave off could thaw ice on its own. No coat or gloves he'd ever worn could compete. It filled him with awe, and so much esteem. “As long as you're with me."

Toby tenderly scratched the underside of Mae's chin, and she purred anew. And he used to think she couldn't feel him. How stupid of him. Mae, it always came back to her. Shy as a kitten, affectionate as a lap cat, and so smart and kind that she put anyone else he knew to shame. Perhaps the size difference would be irreconcilable, or some external drama could have made their world come crashing down. But Andrew insisted that it could work. Somebody else honestly thought that a relationship like theirs could hold water. Toby still had his doubts. But when she set those gorgeous yellow eyes on him, they never seemed to last.