Above the ocean, walking alongside Eric, she'd wondered at the clarity and the color of the cities sprawling around them. More than ever, she'd damned the ocean for its dark blue, the way the water only reluctantly bared its contents, piece by piece, as you swam farther and deeper.

She'd been a fool for it. More foolish, even, than killing Eric. She ached for her dark blue oceans, now. The weapons of war threw the sea creatures and sand so that everything was lost to the murk. They huddled in their rock castles that, for so long, had stood strong against firm currents, coming undone as technology out of the grasp of their understanding plummeted beneath the waves.

Her sisters and her father listened to her pleading for their forgiveness and granted it. She could not be sure that they were honest during the onslaught. She could not see their faces, and their voices were lost among the impact of the humans' attacks. The castle stone fractured and fell. The water gradually found itself again, dark blue and secretive, coral thriving on a pile of strangely shaped rock.

He was covered in strange shifting plates that the Alien, which he had come to know as Taleeb, had assured him was in vogue. He had twisted his lips but taken Taleeb at his word.

They were moving through a hall where Aliens of diverse shape, size, and movement of body were congregating. He couldn't help but notice that they stopped chittering or blubbering whenever he and Taleeb passed them.

"I don't see many humans here," he said.

"Oh, there aren't," Taleeb assured him, "It's a little weird to do that. Always makes an impression."

"What the hell is that?" grinded out a near Alien, flat and hard, almost flush with the floor.

"A human," Taleeb said impressively, "from Earth."

"Uh. Okay." the sheet-Alien said, sliding away.

"I"m sorry about that," Taleeb said.

"No problem," Adam said as Taleeb pulled him into the main dance hall.

For a moment Adam froze, amazed at the diversity of movement in the room. He wondered if the many-legged alien that passed was doing their version of the worm or if that was just how it traveled. He decided not to ask.

"This way," Taleeb said, pulling him urgently. He stumbled, catching himself.

"Look at THIS," Taleeb announced to a group of looming, eel-like aliens.

"Go away, Taleeb," one said.

"You all said I couldn't get a date," Taleeb insisted. It stood aside, presenting Adam. He waved.

The eels looked at him. They began to thrash. Sounds came out of them that he assumed was vicious laughter.

"Taleeb, that is the most pathetic thing I have ever seen. You didn't honestly go all the way to Earth for a date? What, did the other planets on the way send satellites out to reject you before you landed?"

"N-no," Taleeb stuttered. It seemed at a loss for words. Adam thought it had expected a different reaction.

"How typical. Let me guess, he picked you up on his seedspawner's dinky little spaceship and made you come here? Taleeb, you know that it's not impressive to abduct a date, right? Anyone can do that. Thanks for proving that the only way you could ever get a date is by making them. Hey, it's not like anything we didn't all know, right?"

Taleeb was silent.

"I asked Taleeb," Adam said.

"Excuse me?" said one of the eels, glaring down at him.

"I asked Taleeb to come. He was visiting Earth and I thought -- well, I thought -- " he glanced at Taleeb. "Taleeb looks like a lot of beautiful stuff on Earth which made me want to ask it out."

"Like what?" the eel demanded.

"Like...uh...bubble water."

"Which is what exactly?"

"A very rare resource. All of our most beautiful people wipe it all over their body before they go out," he said with as much confidence as he could summon. He mimed the motion of wiping bubble water on his body and then stopped, feeling foolish.

Taleeb and the Eels were silent.

"Whatever," said an Eel finally. "Good for Taleeb for being pretty by Earth standards. At least it's pretty somewhere."

The eels turned away with finality. Taleeb raced out of the room and Adam followed, running through one gelatinous alien on the way. He stumbled through the open doors, wiping it out of his eyes.

"Taleeb?" he called gently. Then he spotted him over in some kind of foliage. It was bright purple and rubbery. He hoped it wouldn't give him a rash as he climbed in.

"Did you mean it?" Taleeb asked quietly.

"What?" he asked.

"The bubble water thing."

He looked at Taleeb and sighed.

"I mean, yeah. Well, no," he said, and shot a hand out to stop Taleeb from running out of the bush. "People don't bathe themselves in it. Bubble water is pretty though. People blow it through little sticks and it makes little orbs that fly away."

"That's weird," Taleeb said.

That's rich, he thought, but stopped himself. Instead he said, "But, yes, your skin does have that quality, and I do think it's pretty."

Taleeb looked up at him and his heart skipped a beat, inexplicably. Without meaning to he leaned forward and kissed Taleeb on what he guessed was its mouth.

They broke apart.

"What was that?" Taleeb asked.

"A kiss," he said. "It's uh, something you do with someone you like."

"Oh. You like me?" Taleeb asked, wonder apparent in its voice.

"I do," he said to his own surprise.

Taleeb looked sheepish. "That's...sweet. I'm sorry, but, you're just not really my type."

"Oh," he said.

"Yeah."

They sat in the bush. He started to feel itchy on his neck where the leaves rubbed him.

"I think I'd like to go home now."

"Oh, yeah. I guess this dance is kind of lame. Maybe we could hang out sometime as friends, though," Taleeb said.

"Sure," he said. It still beat doing homework.

Incredulousness won over fear.

"Why wouldn't you go with someone from your own planet?" he demanded.

The alien, which was an iridescent shimmering mass of too many everything, seemed to look at him blankly. When it answered he noticed there was some kind of delay with its mouth moving and Adam hearing it. He thought maybe there was some kind of auto-translator involved.

"No one from my planet wants to go with me," it said sullenly.

"No one?"

"Yeah."

"I doubt that's true," Adam argued. "I'm sure you could have found someone rather than going to the trouble of coming all the way to Earth."

"It's way easier."

"How?"

"I can't show my face on my planet if they reject me. And you can't reject me!"

Adam deflated a little, both at the statement and the pure joy with which the alien had spoken.

He rubbed his neck.

"How long is this, exactly? This dance?"

"Oh, it's just a few -- hours, I think you call them?"

"Okay. When?"

"A few days from now."

Adam breathed long and hard through his nose. He'd be missing class and assignments, but nothing major. He admitted to himself that this sounded more fun anyway.

"Do you PROMISE to drop me off once it's done? The same place on Earth that you picked me up from?"

"I promise. It's just one dance. I will never bother you again. You might even have fun!"

"Okay," Adam said. It undulated happily.

He wasn't sure why the alien had cared at all about what Adam felt about the matter. As it had said, Adam couldn't say no, but it had seemed important that he want to go. Pity swelled inside him and he forced a smile.