I'm pretty sure I almost slept with that thing. I thought to myself as I looked through the raised stone slab pressed against the cliff wall. Luc had been gone for hours, and I was sure it was for food — or something for me. The thought made my stomach tighten in a way I hadn't felt in years. Gosh, if it tried to sleep with me, I don't think I would stop it. The past six years had been tense. I'd been on autopilot working in a field I'd never intended to, watching person after person die because I wasn't good enough. There hadn't been time for whatever this was...

     The last time I'd had anything romantic happen to me had been a year before I'd signed up for the colony project. Well, it was as romantic as an abusive relationship could be.

     I pressed my teeth together, feeling pain shoot up my jaw. Charlie hadn't been the first coercive asshole to take advantage of me, but I was going to make sure he was the last.

     Luc wasn't exactly a person, so I suppose it didn't count.

     I quickly grew bored with Luc's absence. I still wasn't sure if it was a male. There were no clear body parts I could point to, but it felt male, even though I couldn't explain why.

     I spent the time going through its things. Josephine — our chief anthropologist turned filling officer, would have loved to be here. All we knew about the Avians were the bits and bobs that were left on the surface — most of it dropped by mistake from so high up that they were damaged. We knew the Avian saw the sinkholes as the tunnel to the underworld because there were specific ones they used to drop dead bodies. They didn't seem particularly religious aside from that.

     The trinkets on the Avian's table had engravings on them — writings. It was consistent with some of the stuff that was found, but no one in my settlement had ever looked at such a large and intact collection. All the knives were carved and attached to circular handles, probably to make them easier to hold in the middle of flight. Metal seemed rare — most of the tools were made of wood, bone, and volcanic glass, and when there was metal it was often untreated, with the ores used as is.

     Under all the trinkets, I had found thin slices of rubber that had black markings on them — writing. I frowned, squinting like it would make me understand anything. I walked away from the table, walking to the bags. A part of me hoped that there was paper somewhere, and a pen — one that worked.

     I looked through the duffel bags again and found a pen. On the lower ends of one of the bags, there was a stash of blank printing paper and crayons—it must have been for a child. I took the pen and papers and headed over to the stone slab, immediately drawing.

     I needed to talk to Luc somehow, and drawing and pointing were all that came to me at the moment. Taking biology at university meant drawing lots of detailed diagrams and pictures. I was pretty good — not the art exhibition level of good, but good enough.

     I went about doodling the few things I wanted him to know. I drew a group of people "a human", a man "a male", and a woman "a female". I drew the shortbread from this morning "food. I drew a flame "fire", and then I drew a group of him — the anatomy was off, and it looked uncanny, but I was sure he would understand my question.

     What are you?

     Avian sure, but what do you call yourself?

     A part of my face heated when I began to draw two people kissing. "Kissing." I wanted to know what that was all about. Had it just been an elaborate plot to get me to take my medicine without protest or...?

     The sound of wings made me turn around. Luc had just landed, clenching onto something — a blanket. He looked a little frazzled, but the creature seemed to calm down when I smiled at it. It smiled back, and I blinked, taken aback. I didn't think it could do that. I stepped forward, and the smell of salt and fish hit my nose hard. I noticed the blood smeared on his waist, and how the bottom of the bag stitched to his belt was a deeper color — soaked in blood.

     I reached out, tugging at the blanket he was still holding tightly. He let go, purring a bit as he undid the belt around his waist before cradling the bag. I watched him walk off to the stone slab, his wings dragging behind him with the movement. He stopped in front of it, staring down at my drawings in curiosity.

     "I'll explain soon, Luc," I said, and his head turned to look at me. I was wrapped in the blanket now, relieved at not shivering every other minute from the wind. I heard his purring, but this time dotted with a short string of churring — that was good, right?

     Luc picked up a blade, and a tray made of wood before walking over to the side. He opened his bag, and slowly went about gutting the fish, throwing their guts off the cliff side and laying the pieces of fish on the tray. I walked over to him, sitting across from him as I watched him work. He smelled like fish — it should have bothered me, but it didn't. I was more focused on what he was doing with the fish. Making dry rations?

     When Luc was done, he stood up, picking up the tray, before heading towards the stone slab again. He left the tray at the edge, picking up a rag before cleaning himself off with a solution from one of the bottles. It smelled familiar — like him — like salt.

     I watched, walking over to the stone slab and picking up my drawings. When he was done, he looked over at me, and then at my hands.

     "Right..." I started, remembering what I was supposed to do. I held up the first picture — the one of humans. "Humans," I said, feeling like a nursery school teacher.

     "Hue-mans..." Luc repeated, making me smile.

     Fuck corrections, it was good enough.

     "Yes," I muttered, nodding my head. Luc cocked his head to the side, seemingly in thought, as his eyes moved from me to the photo.

     "Jessie... hue-man?" Luc put it together, and I nodded again.

     "Yes..."

     Luc smiled as I pulled out the next drawing. A man and a woman. I looked at it for a bit and quickly scribbled a child to the side of the woman. Luc seemed good at putting things together, so...

     "Male, and female..." I said, pointing to each person. I pointed at the child. "Child — family," I added, the last bit encompassing everyone. Luc narrowed his eyes at the drawing.

     He probably didn't catch that. I thought to myself before repeating the words. It took a bit before Luc's lips moved.

     "Jessie, hue-man, male..." he muttered, unsure of himself.

     "Yes!" I couldn't believe this was working. "Yes!"

     "Yes—?" Luc said, then said a word I couldn't comprehend or say myself. I blinked, sure he was making a suggestion I couldn't catch.

     "Jessie, hue-man, male, yes," Luc said. "Jessie, female —" There was a pause, then a headshake, and I grained.

     "Jessie, female, no," I said, and Luc's eyes went wide.

     "No." He mumbled to himself. "Yes... no..."

     I think we just communicated the concept of correct and incorrect. I thought to myself, smiling brightly. Jesus, Josephine would sell her left leg to be the one doing this.

     I held up the picture of the shortbread I'd had this morning. Luc frowned. It didn't look like he recognized it.

     "Okay," I mumbled to myself, turning the picture around to add additional items. He had to recognize fish? Fruit? Seeds? I held up the piece of paper again, and recognition shone in his eyes. "Food," I said softly, and he repeated it to me. I moved on to the next drawing, showing the picture of a flame. Luc's eyes focused knowingly — he recognized it. It didn't seem his people used it often, but some of the clay figurines on the table were lamps. They had to use it for tool making... something. I was unsure.

     "Fire," I mumbled, and he mumbled it back. He said a sharp syllable followed by the cackling down that sounded similar to the sound of something burning — possibly the word in his language.

     I moved on to the second to the last diagram. It was of him — or people like him. Luc frowned initially, and I grimaced. I knew the photo was off, but it was all I could do. He reached out to touch the figures in the drawing and then gestured to himself.

     "Yes," I said, nodding. "That was... err, what I was trying to draw."

     There were two syllables, coaxed between fluttering sounds — Helli?

    "Helli?" I said, and Luc blinked, repeating what he had said previously before muttering "Yes."

     So... the Avians called themselves Helli. Good to know.

     "Jessie?" Luc called, making me look into his eyes. I was still getting used to the fact that his pupil engulfed most of it, the whites barely visible.

     "Luc, Helli, m-male..." he said, stammering the last part as if wondering if he'd picked the right option. "Yes?" That was phrased as a question.

     "Yes," I repeated back to him, nodding. I looked down at the pile of paper in my hands, pulling the last slip of paper in the deck and my face immediately burned.

     Maybe I shouldn't...

     "Jessie?" Luc called, making me look up at him. He noticed my hesitation. Plus, I was sure my face was a deep red now. I looked up, licking my lips as my eyes narrowed on his lips. I moved my eyes away sharply, deciding to focus on his chest. Luc stepped forward, staring down at the drawing, and then his eyes flickered — almost as if he was as nervous as I was. His fingers touched the page, tracing where the two humans' lips joined.

     "K-kiss," I mumbled, deciding to get it over with. "Kiss," I repeated without stammering.

     A bit of Luc's black tongue peeked out from between his teeth as he took in a deep breath. "Kiss," he repeated, closing the distance between us. He cupped my face with his hands, bringing my face up to his until I could feel his breathing fanning my face. His eyes kept rapidly flickering — was it nerves? I'd never seen anything like that before.

     "Kiss, yes?" Luc said, and my face flushed.

     My lips parted, but nothing intelligible came out.

     "Jessie, kiss, Luc, yes?" Luc mumbled, tracing the shape of my lip with the tip of his thumb. "Kiss, yes, no?"

     I blinked.

     Oh.

     It was a question. Frazzled, I dropped the paper in my hands. Luc briefly looked at the mess between us but quickly looked back up at my face. I reached to hold his hands, letting myself enjoy the feeling of occasionally brushing a feather or two.

     "Kiss, yes," I said in a soft tone, staring up at him. "Yes. Yes." I repeated, standing on my tiptoes to try to close the distance, but Luc was so much taller. He had to be the one to crouch, and he did, bending forward so that our mouths connected and the thickness of his long tongue glided into my warm mouth. My whole body shuddered, and the blanket that I had loosely draped around me fell to form a pool at my feet.

     Luc used a hand to pull me towards himself, letting my body press flush against his. There was a hardness just below his stomach, and my mind blanked once I figured out what it was.

     Fuck.

     Yes!