Ch.2 Holly

 

Holly waited impatiently outside the bar, doing her best to keep mostly still. It was hard not to fidget in place with the anxiety that had been eating at her all day. She might have spent the rest of the day after asking Vanadia to drinks having a little internal freakout instead of actually getting any work done. 

 

She’d never really been good at picking up on what others were feeling (or understanding how she herself was feeling for that matter), but she’d studied enough to notice just how anxious Vanadia had been leading up to the meeting earlier. Holly’d felt terrible about having let Vanadia think she might actually be in any trouble. She had expected for things to go how they had, but she hadn’t stopped to think about how Vanadia must have been feeling. How Vanadia was still new to that environment, and hadn’t been in the loop of what was happening.

 

The minutes ticked by, each one slowly cranking up the tension inside Holly as the time they’d agreed to meet drew closer. She scrolled aimlessly through her holo in the corner of her vision as she waited, not even really reading any of the headlines. The thought of being late had always been so incredibly stressful for her that she often found herself in a position like this, having arrived nearly half an hour early with nothing to do except wait. It had only been a few minutes though when Holly looked up and it felt like her heart suddenly wanted to set a new speed record. Vanadia was approaching her, and it seemed the Vel woman had found time to go home and change, because she was now clad in a flowy summer dress that took Holly’s breath away.

 

Vanadia’s dark indigo skin seemed to almost glimmer in the dim light of the orbital’s dusk. The speckles dusted across her cheeks and shoulders like freckles glowed a soft pink, like brilliant stars in the most beautiful night sky. As much as she tried not to think of Vanadia that way, Holly had to admit she might have wondered a few times just how far those spots went. 

 

She hated the thought of fetishizing the Vel woman, and the feelings that Vanadia would so often spark in her made Holly feel like she was doing the same thing to Vanadia that she herself had to deal with for so much of her life. Holly of all people knew just how shitty having your very self be a porn category could feel.

 

“Hey…” Vanadia said, her cheeks flaring even more brilliantly, and her pointed ears wiggling ever so slightly.

 

“Hey, wow. You look awesome. Want to head inside?” Holly stepped forward, and they stood right in each other’s space. Suddenly it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Vanadia’s eyes were deep indigo, verging on black at their edges, just like the rest of her, and scattered with flecks of silver that shone in the light of the bar’s entrance. They completely entranced Holly as she stood there, all thought suddenly driven from her head.

 

“Yeah, I’d like that, and um, you look good too,” Vanadia replied, her smooth tail flicking as it peeked out from under her dress.

 

Conversation flowed more easily between them after they’d gotten seated at the bar. Holly might haven downed her first drink a little quickly, but she’d really needed something to steady her nerves. Something about Vanadia just set her alight, and it didn’t seem fair to push that onto her. 

 

Vanadia was just so damn smart, insightful, and sincere. Everything they talked about Vanadia either had something witty to add, or a question that showed she was really listening. Even when she was just listening, Vanadia seemed to give you every ounce of her attention, as if you were the center of the universe in that moment, and Holly was just too gay to handle it all.

 

Holly finished off her third drink, and while she wasn’t drunk, she was feeling more relaxed. The booze fuzzed the connection with her wetware, and let some of the information that was usually separate from her normal perception start to bleed in. She could easily bring it under control if she’d liked, but the way her thermal vision melded at the edge of her sight made Vanadia look even more beautiful. As if she was haloed by a shimmer of iridescent light. 

 

Holly’d even cracked a joke, which was historically not a great idea for her. But Vanadia laughed! Genuinely, even! It was definitely a memory Holly would milk for years to come. They both had a love of literature and philosophy, but they weren’t identical of course, which Holly really liked (not that any of this was going anywhere or anything, what was this… a meeting?), like Vanadia had never seen a film before. Apparently it just wasn’t an art form that had ever really caught on with her people, and she’d never thought about it after immigrating to the Union.

 

“Hey, I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick. Think you’ll be okay for a moment?” Holly said, hopping up from her barstool with a grin on her face. She could still feel the slightest flush in her cheeks. From the drinks, of course.

 

“Oh, I think I can manage,” Vanadia replied, her pink glow increasing slightly. It was funny, Holly’d read up a bit on Vel body language and color meanings a while back, but she didn’t really remember information about what pink meant. It was entrancing though the way the lights scattered across Vanadia’s skin and waxed and waned through the evening, growing dull in the quiet moments where they just sat comfortably together, and flaring up when Vandia would laugh or burst into a tangent off something Holly had said.

 

Holly splashed her face in the bathroom sink, trying to clear her head a bit and get her raging libido under control. As far as she knew, this was little more than an after work meeting between co-workers, friends if she was lucky, but her body didn’t seem to have gotten the memo. Every look Vanadia would give her, every shift of Vanadia’s ears, every tinkling laugh Vanadia let out. Every one would send a thrill racing through Holly. She was concerned that if this kept up, her heart might just give out (though thankfully she had a few backups); it hadn’t stopped pounding in her chest since they’d sat down.

 

It was pretty universally agreed among humans that the Vel were a very attractive people. The random churn of the universe just so happened to lead to them having evolved in such a manner that they resembled more than a few creatures from human myth. So yeah, the silly human making a fool of themselves or worse because they had the hots for a Vel was practically a meme at that point, and Holly didn’t want to be that. Didn’t want to put Vanadia in that kind of position.

 

“Uhhgg, get your shit together, Holls,” she said to herself, turning to head back to the bar.

 

The sight that greeted Holly when she got back to the bar had her heart racing for an entirely different reason. Some dude had sat across from Vanadia, his face clearly flushed from one too many drinks. Holly couldn’t quite hear what he said, but whatever it had been had clearly made Vanadia uncomfortable. Her ears were pressed back flat against her head, and she was leaning away from the man, clearly trying to keep some space between them as he insisted on leaning in closer to her as he continued to ramble.

 

“Cumaaahnnnn, just one drink, baby. I just want to show you some Union hospitality,” the man slurred, sending a jolt of heat racing through Holly very different to the ones she’d been feeling for Vanadia all night. She was pissed. How fucking dare this asshole make Vanadia uncomfortable.

 

Holly’s fist clenched, her knuckles white, and her arm shaking as she stomped her way over to Vanadia. Suddenly the blood was pounding in her ears, and the rest of the world was falling away as Holly’s long dormant combat wetware spooled up. Holly wanted to punch this fuckface’s nose right up into his brain, and her hindbrain was already calculating all the motions to do it, figuring out the force to put into the punch.

 

Her awareness of the room opened up as Holly’s cybernetics scanned the surrounding area. Identifying people, and calculating lines of retreat and attack. Her drug implant fed her a heady mix of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine more addictive than any drug. Holly knew if she hit this guy, she’d get more. Just one of the many fun things they’d mod into you to make you a better fighter. She pushed it down, though. She was in control. Holly had gotten out of a life of violence and she wasn’t going back.

 

The sudden warmth of Vanadia’s hand on her arm helped bring Holly down from the battle high that her implants were stirring up. Vandia’s hand was almost feverishly warm against Holly’s skin, and her spots glowed a distressed shade of sickly yellow. Holly let out a breath, suddenly shocked by her reaction.

 

“Hey, you ready to get out of here?” Holly said, hoping to just slip away without making a scene. Her voice was rough, and her every muscle was tense. Vanadia slipped from her stool in that graceful way she did everything, her arm slipping into Holly’s. Which only added to the heady mixture of adrenaline roaring through Holly’s system.

 

Holly’s skin practically tingled where they touched. The nanites in Holly’s blood sampled the foreign substance touching her, and kindly informed Holly of the brand of perfume Vanadia had put on (a Vel brand Holly wasn’t about to try to pronounce.) The man reached out though as they stepped away, a hairy hand just missing, grabbing Vanadia by her sleeve.

 

“Come on, baby, why don’t you hang out a little longer. You don’t need this little faggot when there’s a real man right here,” he said in that slurred confidence of a drunken idiot. Holly cringed, not really hurt by the man’s words. She’d heard worse before, but it had been a long time since she’d been misgendered, and she hated that this was happening in front of Vanadia.

 

Vanadia whirled on the man so quickly he pulled his hand back with a yelp. Her ears stood almost straight up, her whole body puffed up, and she let out a hiss as she bared rows of teeth that reminded Holly very much of a shark. Vandia’s pupils had shifted into vertical slits. A pair of sparkling indigo orbs slashed through with darkness. If Holly was stunned by the sudden transformation, the man was positively shaken.

 

“Leave. Now,” Vanadia said, her voice low, each word overlaid with a hiss from low in her throat. The man stumbled back, quickly putting space between them.

 

“Woah, damn lady. I was just tryin’ to be polite. No need to go all psycho on me.” The man quickly made his escape, muttering to himself.

 

“Hey… you alright?” Holly asked, her voice soft.

 

“Shit, I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve to see that…” Vanadia replied, her ears tucked back tight against her head as her gaze fell to her feet. Her spots glowed an embarrassed turquoise, and she shied away slightly from Holly, clearly fearing judgement.

 

“Well, I was a hair away from breaking his nose myself for a second there. So if anything, he got off lightly. And uhh, that was actually pretty hot.” Holly cringed as the words left her mouth. Holy shit, had she actually just said that? She was such an idiot sometimes.

 

Vanadia looked up at her, her ears more relaxed, and her eyes wide. A soft smile on her face. Maybe Holly hadn’t totally screwed things up.

 

“I think I’d like to go home now,” Vanadia said, her luminous eyes locked on Holly’s. It felt almost like Vanadia could see right through her, peering right into the strange cocktail of emotions churning inside Holly, right then.

 

“Oh, alright. Uh, I can order a ride for us. I mean, if it’s okay that I see you home?”

 

“I actually live just around the corner. Just a minute’s walk. I would feel better having you come with me though…” Vanadia said, her spots slowly shifting back to that shade of pink that looked so good on her.