Upon Vestia: Chapter TWENTY

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Heny stood there and listened as the two spoke, her heart beat rising. She had visited him a couple of times but found it too painful with eveything going on.

"You have been yourself James, but yes, you should try not to flirt with him unless you plan to follow through as a 'friend with benefits' type thing. Maybe try to find him a girl or boyfriend to take his mind off of you and his troubles?"

James flopped himself down in a chair, which creaked ominously, and gave Rigel a doleful look. "I really doubt he'd cooperate with attempts to hook him up with someone. He's not exactly an outgoing guy, you know?" He added glumly, "And why don't I want him? We've spent so much time together, he's funny and likable in his own odd way, I should be in love with him, shouldn't I? But I'm just... not."

"Then, simply, he is not 'the one' for you." Rigel said and sat back, thinking "He doesn't have much choice if he wants one of his own kind as a mate, that is for certain."

"I've never had even a crush on anyone though," James said uncertainly. This was really bothering him today for some reason, even though normally it was a thing he didn't care about or was even a bit proud of. "Asher had a crush on Dwayne Johnson back when he was like sixteen years old, one of my penpals fell in love with one of her other penpals, there are tons of stories about androids liking each other, or even liking the people they work with every day. But me? Nothing." He frowned, "Maybe we can get a shapeshifter interested in him. Some shapeshifters like damaged bad boys, right?"

Rigel nodded then tilted his head "There are some that don't fall in love with anyone in every people that I have heard of. Maybe you are more like them? And yeah, maybe a shapeshifter would try, if he came out and socialized a little."

James sighed. "Yeah, I guess so. It just doesn't seem right. Ugh. I feel like I should make it up to Acus somehow, but now every time he looks at me his heart is gonna break and he'll feel crappy. It's... bad. Maybe I should find him another therapist, he hasn't seen one since the space station. Ethan had good luck finding one, maybe there's one here for Acus too."

Rigel nodded at that suggestion too "Yes, he has to face his own depression to be able to move on with his life. As for you, the Terrans have a word for it, maybe you can do some research on 'asexual' to see if it is what you feel."

"Yeah, I wish we could magic him better through the power of love, but honestly, even if I did date him or something, I don't know how long it would help him for. Poor guy's brain is a mess, and I don't think I'd be much good at fixing it up." James nodded slowly, he'd heard the term 'asexual' before, both versions of the term, "Maybe you're onto something. I dunno man, I mean androids are, like, asexual by design, but maybe it's okay to not, like, fall in love with people either. It sure doesn't sound okay in my brain right now, but maybe that's the panic talking." He looked sheepish.

Rigel smiled again and shrugged "Not everyone is meant to have a partner in a romantic way, you blur the lines by flirting, but still, to not have those feeling run deeper..." He trailed off then shrugged. "Either you haven't met the one you love or you just won't love like that. It's not something that can or should be forced on anyone."

James smiled softly. "You're right, as usual. Thanks, Rigel."

Rigel chuckled "Hey, when you get old, you have learned some stuff" He said jokingly

"Well I hope that when I'm old, I'm as wise and good looking as you," James said, smiling. He paused, "Aww crap, that habit is hard to break."

Rigel nodded then chuckled "Yes, a habit is hard to break, it requires constant attention for many days to remove from yourself."

"I guess so," agreed James, "Guess I'll have to keep trying if I don't want to keep breaking hearts." He looked at Rigel, "So am I keeping you up? You gotta be getting tired by now, man."

Rigel shrugged then glanced around for a clock. "I am worried about them all being out there, that is keeping me up"

"At least a lot of people stayed home tonight," James said. "Still, lycanthropes are enough to make anyone worry. I researched the effects one day, lycanthropy does nasty things to the bodies of non-shifters." He shivered, the closeups of decaying teeth and warped, twisted bones was enough to make him pretty squeamish. "I totally get why you can't sleep."

Rigel nodded then sighed and picked up his deck of cards, shuffling them "Came across a ship once, read the log, one person was infected on another ship and brought over, they survived the infection and ended up killing everyone else on board. We didn't bother trying to get on once we were able to read the logs, we just moved a safe distance away then blew that ship up. Last log was a year before we found her, but we didn't want to chance it. Even without life-signs reading on our scanners."

"Yikes," James said softly. "Yeah, you do not want to mess with the Infection. I mean sure, shifter Infected are okay for most of the month, Kay is proof of that, but sticking them under the full moon with non-shifters instead of in a cell? Not a good idea."

Rigel nodded "And that one had to be in human form, just crazy from the sickness, since they were in space at the time." He sighed and shuffled the cards "Anyway, want to play 21?"

"Nasty. That's not a way anyone should go," James said. He nodded. "Sure, you'll have to teach me the rules but I'm up for playing."

Rigel explained the rules then dealt the cards to each of them It was a fairly simple game, but getting through a deck could take some time.

James caught on quickly, and didn't try to cheat as they played. Yay!
"So have you ever had someone with a crush on you when you weren't interested?" he asked as they played.

Rigel shook his head at that question "No, the only person I know had a crush on me was my wife."

"I find that hard to believe," James teased a bit. He looked a bit sad at the mention of Rigel's wife though. Poor Rigel.

Rigel shrugged at that "Most of my life was spent on a ship with the only females being 'taken' by other crew members. I know there was that 'you saved my life' crush by some of the females we rescued, but those kind are not real and fade over time. I guess I seemed a bit untouchable during that part of my life."

"Man, 'you saved my life' crushes must be awkward," James mused.

Rigel chuckled and nodded, playing his cards "Yeah, they can be, though I tried my best to stay on the outside looking in on those."