Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was the middle of the day, a beautiful shining bright day, and the birds were chirping. Somewhere, a black racer slithered through yards to eat at geckos, that ate the bugs, that humans screamed over, and elsewhere, the Unit house sat.

Avrin was out on a job, something about a gang war in a nearby town, and his voice had been that of a well-fed and smug cat. The idiot had probably provoked it himself, knowing how he was. What criminal could fault him for it? It wasn't as if they had never done anything wrong, even (especially) on Gaia. Lissel was off doing her own things - one could only assume to pet at poisonous scorpions or assure the man on death row that, no, no, he was a lovely man and, of course, he was going to be just fine.

Who the hell knew where Ques had gone. Kian had almost noticed low their stores of tea within the home; almost everyone liked tea. At least, the three eyed criminal did and with the speed it seemed to disappear, others would echo the sentiment, more then likely.

Kian, however, was not very inclined at the moment to think too much on things like snakes and geckos and tea. His attention was full of black skin and blue hair with wings to match. There was a lot of matching going on and breathing - there was a lot of breathing. Breathing and fingers. He rather liked fingers.

They had been sparring, before, on the back lawn. No one had been there and when they had stumbled into the Unit, still tense with adreniline and half-laughing with aggression, one of them had grabbed the other. He couldn't exactly remember who it was, but he remembered there was an attempt at the bedroom, an attempt cut short by certian red-tipped fingers hauling a piece of clothing off of the other. There was no more of that clothing to worry about.

Instead, Kians back was pressed tight against the raised doorframe, tail wedged between skin and wood, the sharp edges of the blades leaving scars into the dark walls. They had almost made it but now, with skin on skin, breath against his neck, and hands - well - everywhere, there had been no further movements towards the bedroom itself. They were on the cusp. That was enough.

One would see, when turning into The Unit - with it's wide open living room with few hallways - a clutch of black on black. The shorter of the figures, pressed roughly and making noises one would not want to define in order to keep their throat, had a leg hiked up around the tallers waist, arm around his shoulders and another pressed against the wall. Balance? Who knew. The taller's back was curved as he bent lower, perhaps from the pressure of arm on neck, and he was moving. He had wings (luckily?) - the contraptions could hide quite a bit of the movements, depending on where a person stood within the living room or hall.

Oh, those rapscallions.

Normally, it did not take much to put Autsu on alert. He had come to Gaia with a warriors senses, and on Gaia, he had honed the edge of his awareness to a much sharper blade. Why? Best not to ask. Sometimes people did things. Maybe out of pride, maybe just to stay sane.

But nevermind that. The point being that normally, Autsu would have been aware of Malas from the moment the door so much as began to open, would have reacted, pulled the two of them into the cover of a room until the new presence could be identified as friend or foe. And that would have been a good idea, really.

But this wasn't normally. His mind was singing with the close sounds of Kian's breathe, and he was not, therefore listening for the door. His senses were attuned only to the very close, and in comparison, the door was very far. So it wasn't until Malas had in fact entered The Unit that Autsu's trained senses became aware of her, and he cut his movements off, mid-gasp, to react.

He did not freeze. Only fools froze. No, one of his enormous wings flew up, a shield between the intruder and himself and Kian. This was not a matter of modesty, but he much preferred an injury to his wings then to his unguarded person, or Kian. They were useless anyway.

At the same time, he dropped to his knees, so that he might obtain one of the weapons that littered the floor. A gun would be best, but as they'd been sparring, he'd disarmed himself of all but his knives. So he picked up the machete, not the best choice as he'd prefer to avoid hand to hand combat while undefended, but it'd do. Kian's staff, he twisted to vertical, so the other might take it. All this within seconds, and only then did he even attempt to identify whether or not the 'threat' was one in fact.

It'd been a long time since he'd seen Malas, and his mind did not call her to mind as more than 'familiar'

The commonplace blank expression on the female teenager's face has always been a careful mask to cover the internal monologues she sometimes had. Her thoughts are rarely expressed into words (not because she believes them to be precious but because she feels her opinions hold very little meaning and therefore irrelevant) unless asked beforehand to respond. It is only normal for Malas to show no emotion, no indication of what it was going on inside her head regardless of the situation.

This time, well, the blank glaze of her face was an apt mirror of her thoughts. Really, Malas had no idea what she just walked into or what she was intruding upon. If her guardian had schooled her in manners, she would have thought to look away or turn around. From the way she continued to stare at them it was clear she had not been taught anything apart from what she already knew from her Knot-self's life back home.

But as the two figures before her separate into armed defensive stances, the gravity of the situation began to register in the bright-skinned alien's mind. She stiffens but keeps her hands to her sides. She makes no motion to defend herself, thinking it appropriate that she be punished for interrupting whatever it was the two were doing.

If the female's brain was not filled with the static of confusion she might have recognized the wings to be Autsu's (despite not really remembering his name). With considerable effort she managed to recognize Kian even if he was (they were both) sorely lacking in the clothing department. The only indication that Malas was severly uncomfortable (apart from the rigidity of her body) was the darkening tinge of her cheeks.

Kian's words reach her ears, but she misunderstands what he meant and expresses in earnest: "I'm sorry."

Whether she knew what she was sorry for (and honestly she isn't really familiar with the intimate act she had interrupted) was beside the point.

The apology from Malas made his eyebrow twitch, just slightly, and she received a vaguely queer look from the stocky alien. Autsu was calming down beside him (which was good, as Kian didn't want to have to punch him in the face or something to make him stop from going insta!guard on Malas) and Kian slowly lowered his tail. Calm Autsu meant no bloodshed. Right now. So did a calm Kian, for that matter.

"Do not be sorry. You are not required to apologize." This time, anyway.

At least it wasn't Rothe. Or Iamel. While Autsu might be fine flying high and nude and grinding in public, Kian did not join him on that opinion. The thought of Rothe walking in... It made his soul die, just a little.

But it was Malas.

He yanked his head right back into the conversation, where Autsu was speaking, and then it was his turn. His main two eyes were still trained on Malas, the third having rolled back and slid closed a bit ago.

There were two 'dorms' or 'barracks' in the Unit's housing. One was, at least unofficially, Autsu's room. He slept there regularly, as did Avrin when he was around. And, well, Autsu and Kian both slept there on those occasions when they faded out into pleasurable drowsiness.

The other room was less often used, though the occasional person crashed in one of the beds. It was to that one, the one further down the hallway that Autsu looked toward.

He had pants now, though he didn't look entirely happy about the fact. Or even, slightly happy about the fact, cold zipper being what (and where) it was.

But he wasn't mad at Malas, who was using the Unit in exactly the way it was designed to be used.

"The Unit is your home, comrade, for as long as you wish. The quarters down the hall should serve you well."

He considered. There was more to say, if this was to be a welcome. "The rooms are simple, with sleeping pallets. If you require more, Lissel can acquire what you need."

Malas still feels as if she had made a grave error for coming to the Unit in the first place. Despite the assurances that she had nothing to apologize for and that she was in her right to visit, she could not ignore the sense of stupidity coupled with guilt gnawing in the back of her mind. If she were a more expressive individual, her unease would be seen in not just the slight droop of her ears or the lack of eye contact she made with either males.

"Thank you." she tells them, her gaze mapping out the path to her new lodgings. She nods at Kian's inquiry on her well being, she was alright, physically. She was not dependent on her guardian but it was still slightly upsetting to her that he had no qualms about abandoning her. She supposes she should have known better.

"Everything is fine." she sounds as if she is speaking more to herself than to Kian and Autsu.

It will not occur to Malas to ask what exactly it was they were doing as she had never been inquisitive of nature. At least, not now in the actual moment. But she did have one question that was of interest to her considering she would be staying here, "Does this ritual of yours happen often?"

She means no malice in asking, she simply wanted to know so that in the future she would be able to avoid getting in the way.

Not often in the hallways? Kian wasn't exactly sure how to react to that one, save for the brief tightening of his fingers and the mildest of pressures. Not often in the hallways?!

He wasn't ashamed of them, not really. He felt more shame over his failure to remain uncaptured on his home planet, or the fact that he scolded Jii a morning or two back, than over his affair with the bodyguard/friend/comrade within the Unit. It wasn't that they were having sex, or that there were emotions, or even that he would let his guard down during that sex.

It was simply none of anyone elses business. Perhaps if he had been teased less as a 'child' or taunted to a lesser extent by Rothe or Iamel on his direction with Autsu, it would have been different. But he had been and, as a result, was supremely uncomfortable to have others be in a position to use that against him. Vulnerability during the actual act of sex was different then have it be bared to people other then Autsu - and even then, he didn't much like the times he started ranting at his comrade about things like that.

...granted, Autsu didn't really listen to anything he said during those times, but that was beside the point.

"We will leave the door closed." He said. His words, while quiet and in that usual monotone, came out a bit stiffly. Uncomfortable. "The Unit - it is yours as well. We will not... intrude."

This had been HER intruding this time but, in the future... Well. Yes.

Now, it seemed that Autsu was finally beginning to feel awkward. It wasn't so much the situation, which he hadn't thought was so great an issue. It was simply the stiff reserve being shown by both Malas and Kian. Something was going on here that he was somehow missing.

Were they doing something wrong after all? He had been of the opinion, thus far, that the wonderful thing about his relationship with Kian was that unlike before, they did not have to hide. There was no fear there, if one did not count the fear of the yet to come. And they didn't talk about that, much.

He shifted uncomfortably in place, crossing his arms across his chest and looking between the two others blankly.

He didn't even know what he was supposed to say to diffuse the situation.

"Will you need assistance with moving your things?"