[b]“Well, this is very romantic of you,”[/b] Cassie said while Serix carried her back to the bedroom. [b]“I’m pleasantly surprised.”[/b]

“Surprised?” Serix said with a mock frown. “Don’t have such little faith in me, Cassie. I can be romantic when I want to. Besides,” He paused in his walk and leaned in close to give her a blatantly flirtatious smirk. “If I was like this all the time, you’d grow numb to my natural charm.” He planted a quick peck on her cheek and continued carrying her to the room.

Cassie leaned her head on his shoulder and went on to describe how their position reminded her of human mates. Apparently newly mated —or [i]newlywed[/i]. He still had to get used to human terms— human males would carry their mates like he was doing with Cassie. He had never heard of it before, but the practice was an interesting tradition. He smiled to himself. It seemed like he and Cassie were acting like mates according to human culture as well as Lunairan.

This inevitably led him to another question. It was obvious now that they both wanted that kind of relationship, but they had left their cultures behind. Most of the Lunairan traditions were impossible to carry out without a third party, which they didn’t have, and while Serix still didn’t know much about human methods, he could guess that they were similar enough. He didn’t want to be trapped in the unofficial nature of their relationship, but he wasn’t sure how to get out of it. They had no traditions to fall back on.

Serix then thought of something else. What if they invented their own mating rituals? Humans apparently made things all the time when they still populated the Earth. Creativity was the one area in which they always seemed to outclass the Lunairans. Maybe he could try to adopt their ways of thinking. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for him to be a bit more flexible.

They entered the still-dark room and Serix set Cassie down on her bed. She looked up at him, [b]“I don’t think I need to sleep this time. Just rest for a few minutes.”[/b]

“Don’t overexert yourself,” Serix said, shaking his head. “Just lie down for a bit. I’m going to go turn these lights back on. I’ll be back soon.” He put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her down until she was lying with her head on the pillow, and then pulled the blanket over her and headed back out into the hallway.

He went to the generator room Cassie had shown him before, where he found the breaker that controlled the lights in all of the rooms. He flipped the switch for the bedroom and closed the box again, exiting the room and making his way back to Cassie. The whole trip took him no longer than three minutes.

“That’s much better,” Serix nodded when he entered the lit room. He crossed over to Cassie’s bed and sat down on the edge, hesitated for a moment, and then turned to her. “So… I was thinking. From what you’ve told me, and from what I know myself, it seems like we’re acting like a mated couple by both human and Lunairan standards. Why not just seal the deal?” He flushed slightly and scuffed his foot at the floor. “I mean, I know we only just confessed yesterday, but it’s not like either of us are going anywhere. We’ve just got each other, and there’s no point in waiting… so why not make it official?”