"Moi, for the last time, I`m not interested!" Scarletra growled, turning away from the pilot to bring three more boxes in from the outside, annoyed by the pilot`s insistence on getting into her jumpsuit for some "Fun." "I would assume that telling you once was enough."

　　She hurried along with the work that needed to be done, ignoring his requests to wait and give him a chance; thankfully, creating a wide gap between them in only a few strides was easy enough to do, even if she still had to listen to his grating, sharp voice for a few moments—at least until the door slammed shut on his face.

　　Scarletra was in no way interested in the pilot, not only because of his insistence on getting her to hear his claims of his prowess in the bedroom. But his horribly scrawny build and general behavior just annoyed her.

　　The diminutive alien hurriedly followed behind her once the door reopened, struggling to move through the snow nearly up to his waist. How could an alien be no higher than her thigh?

　　Once outside by the shuttle, Scarletra spotted Samuel lugging some of the explosives away; the odor that wafted off him in the breeze was strange but subtle. It reminded her of a weird yet sweet candy, just like Samuel had warned her. She initially assumed he must be mistaken because he does not have the sharpest senses, but no, it really was sweet. She could not effectively describe the heavenly aroma at the moment because the scent was diluted amidst others, and this pilot was one wrong move from her kicking half to death.

　　Especially after he decided to open up with his failing attempts at "flirting" by smacking her ass and claiming he could "climb her."

　　What the fuck is she to the pilot, just a tree? Or some other kind of fucked up prize to show off?

　　"What ain`t like that old man out there can treat you right. If he even is, but I can"? Moi argued, grabbing hold of another box.

　　Scarletra rolled her eyes and chose not to acknowledge that comment. Who in the Great Mothers or Levaals world did Moi think he was? He hardly knew her or Samuel at all. If he acted like this at the tribe, Mother would roast him alive for dinner.

　　The way Moi`s head was firmly in his own ass reminded Scarletta too much of how so many of the younger warriors used to act, thinking they were the Great Mother`s gift to the world, or to the young women around the tribe, despite them having no right to even attempt without asking the Matriarch or the mother of the woman they fancied.

　　Regrettably, that behavior was also far too familiar for Scrletra. From the visiting diplomats, Mother gave her no choice but to tolerate and spend more intimate time than she would want to remember with.

　　Either way so long as the little man kept his hands to himself and did not decide her rump was something he could play with, they would hopefully not have issues—only Samuel was allowed to mess with her like that if he wanted. And at least Samuel had the common courtesy to ask first.

　　What made so many young men act like that? What In Great Mother`s name was wrong with this pilot? Even if Scarletra`s Mother was generally horrible to her, at least the basics of proper manners were amidst how she and her sisters and the rest of the tribe were taught.

　　"Let`s just finish the work Samuel has given us. Once that`s over, I don`t know. At that point, aren`t you leaving?" Scarletra said, trying to hint at what she wanted.

　　"What are you trying to get rid of me already, big girl?" Moi replied, trying to catch up with the half-growling Varintol woman, undeterred by the vague threats. He could do this; he just had to be persistent.

　　Scarletra shook her head and kept working, knowing most of the supplies had already been unloaded because Samuel had already started to unload the explosives from around the cockpit of Moi`s aircraft. Hopefully, the little goblin could hurry up, stop gawking at her extensive figure, and get out of here. Scarletra needed to talk to Samuel, and having an interloper in their—er his home was not helping.

　　"Yes, there are other things Samuel and I need to do," Scarletra replied flatly.

　　"How bad could it be? Not like I`m really interrupting," Moi jeered.

　　 At least that told Scarletra one more thing about the man. He, like Samuel, did not have a keen sense of smell, letting him gauge how others were feeling with no words needed. If he could, Moi could easily pick up on her genuine frustration.

　　 "No, I will be frank, you are interrupting a lot. I had to study and do other projects today. Instead, I have you following me around like a cub," Sacarletra replied. Excluding how, as soon as the Pilot was gone, she would speak to Samuel and tell him the truth about the Monster he invited into his bed.

　　"I can`t be that bad," Moi complained as they entered back inside from the snow.

　　Oh, if only it was that way, but no. Moi was no better than a young cub, an annoyance always underfoot, who needed to be taught not to be there by a strong mother or more learned men.

　　Scarletra knew she had no right to do any disciplinary acts to the pilot, as much as she wanted. Besides, finalizing her plan to speak candidly to Samuel was essential and deserved her attention and respect, unlike Moi. The filthy little pervert.

　　—

　　It took Samuel a few hours to unload the explosives and safely put them in the garage. The vast majority of that time, he was pleasantly left alone by Moi—the last thing he needed was to have the pilot blow his hand off by tugging on a brick of PETN, or, god forbid, he thought the shiny blasting caps would be fun to mess with.

　　Samuel might be able to explain many things to his boss, but Oh yeah, your pilot thought playing catch with high explosives was a good idea.` It was something he doubted even he could get away with. Especially if the Goblin-like alien was missing fingers, a hand, or half a torso.

　　Halfway through his solo work, they settled in nearby. Even though how they did it was weird. Even by the standards of this moon that`s crawling with megafauna and other aliens and had a massive population of pseudo-Viking bear people out there, it was strange.

　　 Scarletra settled onto the edge of the landing platform, datapad in hand; she immediately shut off her translator and clearly tried to ignore Moi completely. Despite how the short goblin-like alien was constantly attempting to read whatever she was studying or nestle close.

　　Knowing Scarletra, she was likely just reviewing lessons on how to read Standard. If that`s the case, why ignore Moi? The pilot was probably far better at the language than Samuel was; it`s not like Samuel grew up with it after all.

　　However, even in passing, Samuel could tell Moi was being a bit too touchy for the massive bear girl and was starting to get under her skin. But Scarletra was generally strong-willed enough. She could handle the meter-tall alien if he crossed a line. Right?The author`s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

　　Samuel would figure that issue out later; he still had a few hundred kilograms of explosives to secure.

　　After Samuel had finished tucking away the explosives, Moi was clearly irritated that Scarletra was trying to not listen to him. But by the time Samuel made it next to the waiting duo, they had already changed subjects—somewhat.

　　"Chief, why does Scarletra not wanna talk to me?" Moi complained, gesturing at the Varintol and walking closer.

　　"You`re rude," Scarletra replied flatly in standard, tucking away her datapad.

　　 Samuel still found how quickly she learned mind-boggling even though she had only been practicing the language actively for several weeks.

　　"I have done nothing wrong," Moi protested.

　　"I don`t know about that one, buddy. I`m certain you broke a few rules of safe transport already," Samuel quipped, jamming a thumb toward the now locked-up shed.

　　"Well, maybe a few guidelines there. The only other thing was hitting on the big girl here," Moi replied, gesturing at Scarletra, who watched them intently.

　　"What exactly did you do? Scarletra is pretty patient, and if she thinks you`re rude—I`m inclined to believe her," Samuel surrendered. It wasn`t like the Varintol woman did not have his number within a few minutes of their meeting; she was preternaturally sharp.

　　Moi looked a bit away from Samuel, his bravado slipping. Moi was boisterous, bold, and honest. It would not be the first time those personality traits landed him in hot water—and the outpost was Samuel`s.

　　"I might`ve slapped her ass and asked her if she wanted to fuck," Moi admitted.

　　Samuel paused, processing that. He felt almost angry at the little goblin esc man for several reasons. Where in the universe would that ever be okay to do? And why the fuck would he not be mad at him for slapping Scarletra`s ass? Samuel could admit at this point that he had feelings for Scarletra and that she likely had some amount for him, even though she was hiding something. She was one of the sweetest persons he knew—and Moi was fucked up for doing that to her.

　　Samuel had worked with enough people over his nearly 55 years of life and knew that screaming and getting overly worked out about something would not help, even if throttling the pilot would be enjoyable for a moment. He had to be rational. His ability to look at things rationally and not freak out made him a halfway decent engineer, lead or not.

　　"Moi dude, that ain`t cool," Samuel said flatly, crossing his arms. "Why in all the stars would you think it`s okay to just do that to a woman you don`t even know?"

　　"I mean—I don`t know," Moi replied sheepishly.

　　Moi was honestly unsure of how else he could go about it. That`s what had always worked when hitting on women in the clubs; being forward alongside gloating about how he was a hotshot fighter pilot usually was all it took to get a girl in bed for at least one romp—and that`s all he was really aiming for here. It wasn`t like he planned on spending a long time here, an hour or two more at most. That way, he could boast to other pilots about getting with a chick as big as her.

　　"See, Rude," Scarletra half growled.

　　"Look, I am sorry. If it was too much," Moi replied.

　　"Yes, too much," Scarltra replied, "that`s not nice. Sam wouldn`t do that."

　　"Yeah, well, the old man could not handle a woman like you anyways," Moi said, turning to face the Varintol, nearly cutting Samuel out of the conversation.

　　"No, Samuel can. Not you, though," Scarletra grinned, easily able to pick up the defensive twitch Moi gave off, trying to build himself up by knocking Samuel down a bit.

　　Moi turned and looked at Samuel. The human shrugged. While Samuel was not one to advertise his relationships, he would not deny what happened when Scarletra just admitted it.

　　"Well, I did not expect that to be why," Moi replied, shifting from defensiveness to a curiosity neither Samuel nor Scarletra wanted. The little fuck just was too curious and honest for his own good.

　　He immediately launched into a series of passionate questions about their love life. Samuel was quick to shut that shit down, wanting to keep the curious pilot far out of his love life and Scarletra`s. What they did was not his business.

　　While Scarletra did not seem to care in the open. She found it horrifying how each question before Samuel closed the pilot`s inquiries was more lewd and intimate. The pilot started simple enough, and it was good. But was ending with horrendous questions about what her pussy tasted like.

　　Thank the Great Mother that Samuel was in charge of the outpost and was willing to intervene on her behalf because her claws were itching to grab the little bastard.

　　"Alright, Moi, that`s enough. I could overlook slapping her ass because you apologized; now you`re just crossing lines. Scarletta, you too; not everyone on this moon has to know about anything we have between us." Samuel gestured at them both with a knife-hand.

　　Scarletra gave an annoyed huff but made no further comment.

　　"Well, chief, can`t I guy ask what it was like without getting the cold shoulder," Moi protested.

　　"No, now do me a solid and bounce. I`m certain you could be doing your job elsewhere. If I hear another word about any of this, here now or ever, I will send every recording of what happened to your boss," Samuel replied.

　　"Fine," Moi complained but did not want to cause any more waves of issues on the subject. He had caused himself enough trouble, and Samuel`s glare was enough to warn this would be the end of the subject before Samuel kicked his teeth in. a Type of force Moi did not need more of.

　　He was a pilot, dammit, not some warrior.

　　—-

　　Getting Moi into his ship and leaving did not take too long. A half hour at most. Samuel half expected the man`s ship to suddenly "need maintenance" and ground him here for a few hours, but no. Instead, the four tilting motors roared to life and quickly carried him away, leaving Scarletra and Samuel alone in the whipping snow.

　　"You alright?" Samuel asked.

　　"Yes, I`m going to eat," Scarletra quickly replied before going inside.

　　Samuel was okay with that. He still had some work to do anyway, following her inside. After returning inside and updating all the inventories via his datapad, Samuel started back toward his workbench, not even glancing around. He was certain Scarletra would have locked herself in her room with food—again, ignoring him. But no, he was pleasantly surprised to find her waiting for him inside the room his workbench was in, with a case of beer on the bench.

　　"What`s up?" Samuel asked.

　　Scarltetra looked at him, then averted her eyes for a second, clearly trying to think of how to say whatever it was properly.

　　"I want to talk," Scarletra said in her thick accent, still not having reactivated her translator.

　　Samuel settled into his chair with a pained growl and fished a beer out of the case. If it was whatever had made her acting so strange the last few days, he did not doubt she brought the booze here as some liquid courage. Hell, for all he knew, it might not be the worst idea—but he truly had no idea.

　　He knew Scarletra was hiding something about her past, which could be horrible. But he hoped this would clear it up, no matter how long this conversation might take. Although she might have to reactivate that translator to ensure nothing is missed.

　　"Sam, will you hate me?" Scarletra asked, grabbing herself a beer.

　　"I doubt it. I can`t think of anything that would make me do that," Samuel replied, opening the can and sipping.

　　Scarletra awkwardly shifted and grumbled a few words in her original language. Samuel had no idea what she said, but she knew how she just called herself a liar and a monster; saying it like that first, she hoped, would make this easier, but it did not. She sucked down the beer and let the liquid alleviate what felt like might as well have been a fire in her throat.

　　Samuel rested a hand on her shoulder. It was plenty easy to tell how difficult what she must be trying to say was. Scatletra took in a deep, steadying breath and grabbed another drink.

　　After they sat there in silence for a few minutes, both nursing a beverage, Scarletra looked over at him. "Sam, I lied to you. No, I have been lying to you."

　　"I know," Samuel replied flatly, hoping that admitting what she no doubt saw as a revelation was not one at all would make this ordeal easier on his Varintol companion.

　　Scarletra`s giant golden eyes looked intently at him. She sniffled a few times, muttering words out in Varintol before her hand slowly reached up and flicked on her translator. That he knew she was lying was unexpected, a welcomed thing, but now she knew some questions would go both ways, and she wanted the translator ready.

　　She sniffled and wiped a tear from her eye, trying to think of what she should possibly ask. Did she not act right? Did she do something? Was it the other day out hunting? What in the Great Mother`s Domain did he mean he knew? And How?

　　After Samuel reached down and gently rested his hand in hers, she settled on being straightforward. She had to be; no more lies, no more fake whatever the fuck she had been being with him.

　　"You knew," Scarletra choked. "How?"