25: Peaceful

I stretched out on the couch, belly full and satisfied.  Veraa walked past and gave me a grin.  “Enjoy your breakfast?”

“Fantastic, Veraa, thank you.”

She pinched my belly, making me jump.  “You’ll grow back into this skin soon, don’t you worry,” she laughed.

I grabbed her wrists and pulled her down onto the couch.  She squealed as I grabbed her by the waist and tickled her.  “Hey, stop it!”

Naturally, this degenerated into a tickle war, which ended with an uneasy truce as Veraa snuggled up against me, happily taking the ‘little spoon’ position.

“So, your housemate’s gone to work already?”

She nodded.  “Yeah, Penny won’t be back until this evening.”

“And it’s your day off.  And I don’t fly out until this afternoon.  So, we’ve got the apartment to ourselves for most of the day?”

“Are you suggesting something?” she said sarcastically.

“Oh, maybe.”

She laughed.  “Mmm, I think you might have to wait a little longer for that.  I’m not that kind of girl.”

“What kind of girl?”

“The kind that doesn’t wait until at least the third or fourth date.”

“Fair call,” I laughed.  “How many are we on so far?”

“I’ll be generous and say that today counts as number two.”

“Oh?  That is generous.  I call this lying on a couch all day.”

“Not much else to do around here.”

“True, true.  Of course, there’s always…”

“You’re very persistent, aren’t you?” she laughed.

“Gotta be, or I’d never get anything done.”

She rubbed her dainty little feet against my not-so-dainty feet.  “Well, this is about as much as you’ll do today, buddy.”

“Fine by me.  I’m a patient person.”

There were a few peaceful minutes of silence.  Veraa was nice and warm, and it was great just to cuddle someone after so long with only a gun and the mutants for company.  Mutants don’t even cuddle each other, let alone something as edible and tasty as me.

“What’s it like on Earth II?” asked Veraa, apparently reading my thoughts.

“Dusty.  And quiet, during the day.  The nights are a lot noisier.”

“Why’s that?”

“The local wildlife.  They tend to stick to the forests during the day, but they get adventurous at night.  People call them ‘mutants’.  Nobody really knows where they come from, or what species they evolved from.  They just started popping up after the nukes had stopped falling.  They’re very dangerous, probably the biggest risk one encounters on the planet.  You’d be crazy not to take some sort of weapon with you.”

“Doesn’t sound like a very nice place.  I still kind of want to go, though.”

I chuckled.  “Yeah, nothing quite beats an Earth II sunset, I gotta say.  The whole landscape turns an orangey-gold.  The trees all died during the nuke attacks, so you don’t hear any rustling leaves.  Everything’s quiet, except for the mutants calling to each other.  They’re such strange creatures.  Sometimes they hunt in packs, and sometimes they work alone.  Like humans.  And I’ve seen them using tools.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they were semi-sentient.”