Club, Sunrise
http://www.sofurry.com/view/388202 for details on this and upcoming story series.
[Not final edit] And please forgive my loopy Canadian English, it is correct in my region.
She sat down across from him and he immediately recognized her from the ship. One of the lady crew members whose name he couldn't remember yet.
Hadn't bothered to remember, Caedmon briefly corrected. He didn't stay on one ship long enough to learn the names of the crew any more. If he stayed put too long, the lab would track him down. If the crew were to learn his secrets, the lab might track him faster.
She broke his reverie as soon as she sat, "This is what you were doing when I first saw you, too. Sitting alone in a club, watching all the people having fun without you. Don't you get bored at the edges of all this?"
He felt a spike of panic, She's watched me before? What if she's with them? But he forced himself to be calm, and his voice didn't show any fear as he raised it to be heard over the music, "I like the feel of all this, but I get claustrophobic in the crowds. I'm much happier absorbing everything from the outskirts."
"Aw, an' I thought maybe you were just shy." She teased, a friendly smile spreading across her lips.
"Isn't that what I said?" He laughed. Some of his tension disappeared. Maybe she wasn't a danger, maybe he could let go this time and just chat.
"It sounded a lot like what I used to say. 'I came from a small town, I'm not used to the crowds.' After a couple years of urban living I came outta my shell, learned to have fun."
A grounder? Not as likely that she worked for the lab. "I've never been planetside, what's it like?"
She took his sudden change of topic with a pause, and he realized he had just derailed her introduction and given away his greatest fascination in one ill-planned question.
"It's... Different. It's a whole other world up here, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to explain it when I write letters back home. I dunno if I can explain it right."
He was getting used to her country accent, the way she contracted every few words and annunciated her h's. It made him feel more natural, to be talking to someone raised on Earth. He felt like anything she said could make him feel like he knew her better. "Whatever comes to mind. I'm sure something stands out."
"Oh, lots of things stand out, once you're without them for a coupl'a years. I guess the thing I miss the most is sunrise. Though I haven't seen a proper one since I lived on the prairie."
He watched her, silently urging her to elaborate. She blushed at his gaze, and continued, "It's not the same in the city. Out beyond all those lights, you can lie down in the grass and look up at the stars. Watch to see which ones are real and which ones are just pretendin'."
"Satellites?"
"An' stations, ships, CATs; hell, there's more artificial stars in the sky than there are natural ones. Even most of the stationary ones are man made these days. Anyways, you lie down in the grass, see? An' its all dark, on a summer night, and the grass is cool and moist, an' the wind blows the smell'uh fresh fields around. And you just watch and let the serenity of it take you."
Caedmon was focused on what she was saying, now. His attention left the loud music and crowds of people behind, and he was alone with her on the windy prairie.
"Slowly, so slowly, the sky in the east gets light. The light creeps up from the horizon, and the stars fade away. The sounds uh'life start up, birds chirpin, flying overhead. And at some time, there was dew point, 'cuz the grass is all wet and smells like, well grass I guess."
Her accent was getting thicker as she enveloped herself in the memory, but he was falling into the cadence of her speech more easily, and didn't miss a single word.
"The clouds, if there's any, they light up from white to bright orange, and the sky is baby-blue. An' just when you think it can't get any more beautiful, the sun climbs up over the horizon in the east and it filters through everything, lights up every blade'uh grass, every swoopin' bird. It feels like..."
"Life," Caedmon heard the word cross his own lips, and suddenly he was out of the memory. As if thinking of himself there suddenly broke the illusion; it was complete without him, and he didn't belong in such a place.
They were staring in each other's eyes, and he smiled and looked away. She did the same, though her cheeks showed the blush that his fur covered up.
He looked passingly around the club, and by chance his gaze landed on a group of four men, standing near the bar and talking to one of the employees. Three had armour, one had none. That man turned and looked at Caedmon's table, and the otter saw a glint in his eyes, of too much cunning. The others turned toward him casually, two humans and a wolf-anthro.
"Shit," he said, and bolted toward the nearest exit.