Nestira was spending too much time with Rixx. She noticed that about half an hour into unsuccessfully trying to be a part of the celebratory crowd, the ebb and flow of conversation, the layered rhythms of laughter and music.

She couldn’t deny the beauty of the setting, the detail and care that had been put into curating it. Flower garlands were wrapped around every lamp post, and above, lanterns in varying shapes and color swaying softly as the wind picked up. 

Two years ago, before Nestira had chosen to remain by Rixx side, she had often indulged in celebrations, enjoyed the company of intriguing strangers, and basked in euphoria that radiated from them. 

As much as she had been looking forward to reconnecting with this now dormant part of herself, perhaps she had outgrown it. 

The crowd was overwhelming. Too many people, too many impressions, and that the day had been unbearably hot hadn’t helped either.
But she was stubborn. She had dragged Rixx here after spending days trying to convince him to come along, and was now trying oh so very hard to enjoy it. 

To everyone else, it certainly looked like she was having fun. But fooling a telepath – and someone who knew her as well as Rixx did – was impossible.

Rixx took a stutter-step and then shifted his path to seclude them from the revelers, if only by a few more meters.

“You are uncomfortable?”

“It is nothing,” she assured him. “I suppose I have grown unaccustomed to large numbers of people.”

He regarded her for one long moment and then offered a nod. “That is unfortunate. I have grown passingly comfortable with them – I hope I did not steal that from you.”

They were close, but not bonded close so that was highly unlikely if not impossible. Then again, he had lived long enough to know that stranger things had happened in the universe.

“I doubt that.” Nestira replied and shook her head. She had always believed there was some sort of balance in the galaxy, but him enjoying social outings while she wanted nothing more than to go home, wasn’t something she had counted on happening.

He gazed out at the parties, at the people desperately trying to forget the very real threat that loomed above them, the unknown dangers that could swallow them at any time. And then slowly he turned his gaze back towards Nestira.

“You could open yourself up, absorb their emotions, ride the high like an addict chases that elusive drug induced bliss – but I take it you wish for a more legitimate experience this evening?”

He stated the option without judgement. He was no saint, far be it for him to judge the vices of another.

“Other’s thoughts and emotions are their own. We do not intrude.”
Her tone carried an undercurrent of disapproval. They lived by different tenets and rules, only just starting to incorporate aspects of each other’s world view into their own. But on this, she wasn’t willing to negotiate.

Rixx sighed. He had gotten that response before, and he really didn’t expect to change her mind. But they were still feeling out the path through the world of others thoughts, feelings and emotions. Rixx from the side that you could take what you wanted, but in the end you had nothing, and Nestira from the side that you had to follow the rules that were taught, but then what was taught didn’t cover everything you would face in life.