Heat

Laila shifted, she was sore. Incredibly sore, she amended as she sat
up, and her swollen labia protested the sudden addition of weight.
She contemplated her surroundings, she really, desperately
needed the lou, on the other hand she had no idea where it would be
located, or even if it would be similar in appearance to what she was
used to, so that ruled out simply wandering and looking for it. Men,
she thought irritably, always running off when you need to ask them
questions. Grumbling, she stood, she felt groggy, too much sleep in
too short a time, she supposed.

“Fuck.” she mumbled, looking around, “where are my
clothes?” It was very difficult to see in this lighting. Had
they been brought in? She didn't recall seeing them strewn around the
clearing. She snorted “That certainly would have given them
pause.” The room completely confounded her, what was that big
ovoid in the corner of the room, and for that matter, it wasn't
really a corner was it, it was rather curved, and didn't make her
think of the corners she usually saw. Sighing, she called out;

“A'apep?” The ovoid opened, and A'apep stepped out.

“Laila?” he stood in what now appeared to be a doorway of
sorts.

“I need the lou.” His head tilted to the side, she
certainly liked her soft consonant slang.

“Lou?” he repeated, confused. Wasn't that a name of some
sort?

“Yes, the restroom, bathroom, toilet, bog, W.C, lou, john, I
need to urinate. Now.”

Understanding having been achieved, he stood aside and motioned her
in to the ovular door, which opened into an entire smooth looking
bathing chamber. It reminded her of 60's mod decor, everything was
rounded, silvery and slightly brushed to reduce reflectivity.

“Lou?” She questioned again, she was relatively sure she
had the bathtub figured it, as it was hard not to. The thing was
sunken in the floor, and looked like a small lap pool. The sink was
also relatively easy to understand, as it was a long counter, with a
deep depression in it's centre, she wasn't sure where the water came
from in either fixture, but that was currently irrelevant.
There were a few other objects protruding from the wall, or erupting
from the floor that she was still puzzling over, and she was losing
patience. Laila looked at A'apep expectantly, and he graciously
indicated an apse that receded part way in to the wall, about four
feet from the floor. Sighing she wandered over to it, it seemed...
normal... enough, she supposed, though a bit tall. She glared at it,
but her bladder was quickly winning the war with her stubbornness and
she set about making it work. It functioned normally, she assumed,
though she saw no paper hanging around, and a minor wave of panic set
in when the machine dried her, itself. Huffing irritably, she
hastened off.

“I need a bath... and my clothes.” A'apep had been
fiddling with something by the giant bathtub.

“I had assumed as much, I was just adjusting the settings for
you.” he picked her up and walked to the tub which was rapidly
filling with water that seemed to be seeping out of the sides.
Quickly descending a set of stairs Laila had not noticed earlier, he
kept a delicately firm hold on her. Feeling slightly unbalanced by
his caring nature, she pushed herself in to a semi-sitting position
in his grasp.

“I can swim, you know.” he growled softly, and she
quirked a brow, cocking the left side of her jaw out, pursing her
lips.

“It is considered polite for the male to assist the female in
bathing, after mating.” She was so strange, didn't males of her
species pay the same tribute?

“Ah... fine.” Laila relaxed in his grip, and he slowly
lowered her in to the water, running his palms over her body, lightly
massaging her sore hips and back. He carded his fingers through her
long hair, which had become tangled through the evening.

“How are we going to wash my hair?” she mused aloud, now
that her attention had been drawn to it.

“What do you mean?” was he not washing her as they spoke?

“You know lather, rinse, repeat? Need to get the excess oil off
of my scalp and hair, or it will begin to smell unpleasant and become
sticky.”

A'apep considered this for a moment, certainly her anatomy was alien,
but he doubted that the cleaning agents in the water would be inept
at dealing with her unique situation. He voiced his thoughts,
informing her that Yautja, too produced oils for their skin and hair,
and while mostly likely not as much as her species did, even after
particularly harrowing and dirty missions, the cleansing was always
sufficient. She regarded him momentarily and then shrugged, it would
definitely be convenient if she didn't have to bring shampoo with
her, she wasn't sure it would work out the way it was intended.

Laila became very, very still. Bring... with... her? She shifted her
gaze back to A'apep, who was regarding her sudden change in demeanor
with some trepidation. Narrowing her eyes viciously and pursing her
lips again, she considered her options. She was completing her
doctorate on a military base, full of people that thought she had
committed a gruesome murder, in a country she couldn't decide if she
liked or not. She also appeared to be having a rather enthusiastic...
relationship... with an alien. That killed humans. And ripped their
spines out of their still warm corpses. She lifted her chin
defiantly. Didn't seem to be much difference, when she considered the
possibility of imminent demise.

“So,” she began, trying to word her thoughts as
delicately as she could, “what are you planning on doing with
me?” she winced slightly. Relationship talks had never been her
forte, which generally wasn't a problem as there was very little
“relationship” involved in her liaisons. That and they
didn't usually involve lovers with very wide, very evident murdering
streaks. A'apep stiffened slightly, confused and vaguely offended by
the question. Didn't she know that it was usually considered bad form
to hunt females?

“In what sense?” He hoped that was neutral. He couldn't
really figure out the subtle nuances of her language. His was so much
easier.

“Well, I can't really go back to base and continue my research.
They'd stick me up on murder charges, no fucking doubt. And forgive
my apprehensiveness concerning my status in this... affair.”
she pulled back further in order to see him more clearly. He looked
nervous, almost.

“I was hoping,” He paused, looking her fully in the eye
“I was hoping you would accompany me back to my homeworld,
where we might gain the blessings of the Matriarch.”

Laila blinked several times, looked toward the door, blinked again,
rolled her eyes and returned her gaze to A'apep, her mouth slightly
open in shock.

“Would I even be able to survive the gravitational pull of your
planet? Aside from the atmosphere? And what about food? I'm
flattered, most guys don't even want to take me to dinner after a
lay, so this is big news. But the number of just plain logical and
practical issues with this plan is... is astronomical! Would I even
live long enough to make it back to your planet? Is it even in this
galaxy?”

He slumped slightly, he wasn't sure exactly what he had been
expecting, but instantaneous rebuttal was unpleasant, nonetheless.
Noticing the effect her concerns had she hastened to reassure him,
she was indeed very fond of him, despite their short acquaintance.

“I didn't say no, I just said that it is terribly illogical, I
mean what's your atmosphere even composed of?”

“Two percent more oxygen and one percent more nitrogen, than
your Earth.”

“Well that would explain your massive body... but that also
generally indicates greater gravitational force, if human theories
are anything to go by.” she paused, looked him directly in the
eye “If I am to die of this liaison, I would prefer it to be of
something more glamourous than being crushed to death.”

“There have been instances in the past, where other Humans have
been brought back to our planet, they have faired well.” He
vaguely recalled a – Japanese, was it?- woman, if he was not
mistaken. At the time he had not considered it important information;
now he made a note to check.

Laila wrinkled her nose slightly and sighed.
“All right, so no being crushed to death or dying of oxygen deprivation. What about food? My biology is terribly under developed for eating exotic foods. If I don't have the emzymes to process something its simply passed through my digestive tract... I could die of malnutrition... I know you said there were others, but was Earth native food provided?”
“I...” A'apep paused, thinking momentarily “am unsure, though I believe they received adequate nutrition from our food.” Laila seemed to be relaxing, finding fewer and fewer reasons to be concerned. She exhaled heavily and sank lower in to the hot bath water.
“Right well, that fixes a few things. What about other members of your species? Last I looked there were a number of dead humans hung on your trophy wall.” A'apep seemed mildly offended at her rather frank question, though he supposed he should have expected it.
“It is considered dishonourable to attack an untrained female.” Laila's head jerked up, her eyes narrowing dangerously “Untrained?” Confused but unconcerned A'apep continued; “Males generally only hunt females that have shown a strong ability to fight. Some females are less scrupulous.”
Laila snorted derisively “So... shanking Allen wasn't a demonstration of skill?” she leaned back in A'apep's embrace and wet her hair, scrubbing her fingertips over her scalp vigorously. The pause in conversation allowed him to puzzle over what she had just said. Certainly she had stabbed him, so perhaps “shank” was another word for “stab”? But that had been self defence, and to be honest there was always a chance the creature being attacked could defend its self with fatal consequence. Laila surfaced, running her hands from her cheeks along her forehead and over the crown of her head. She fixed A'apep with a hard stare. A'apep felt almost nervous under her unrelenting gaze.
“Fine. I need some things before we leave.” she sounded resigned.
“I will accompany you from a distance. I do not wish for you to be harmed.”
Laila narrowed her eyes and made to get out of the bath tub, A'apep's voice followed her closely behind;
“I will research the food situation, I plan to take care of you.”
“I have no desire to be a “kept” woman. I would like to think I have at least some ability to take care of myself.” she looked around “Though I will need to get used to the lay out of your ship. I need to dry off.” A'apep led her to a rectangular depression in the wall by the head of the tub and motioned her in, pressing a button as she stepped through, Laila cursed in surprise as a hot gust of air whipped across her skin, pulling away excess moisture “I would have appreciated warning...” She exited the bathroom to find her clothes and make ready to re-enter the base.

-----------------------
Helixfm Coming to you live from the Midwest!

Sorry about the formatting at the end of this chapter. I have no idea what the hell is going on.

In most other Predator stories I've read, girl goes back to Yautja home planet and is fine, but I would think that if nothing else the gravitational pull and the lack of enzymes in the human body to process Yautja food would cause real issues with survival. A human would probably thrive in their atmosphere, perhaps be a bit high for a while, but would their food be similar enough in chemical makeup that we'd actually be able to process it without throwing up or getting horrible indigestion like a lactose intolerant person? Am I over-thinking this?
Thank you guys so much for the reviews and input! I'll keep hammering out this chapter and eventually put a song list of things that have inspired me while writing this.

I'm having massive inspiration fail... =( I have something else rattling around my head that refuses to leave me alone, so perhaps I'll scribble that out and hope that I can come back to this. Thank you so much, every single one of you that has left comments. I truly appreciate it.

Over and out.


Further notes as of 02.15.10
Hello dear readers,
Your author has not abandoned you. Or this. Though I feel as though I've sort of written myself in to a dead end. I have so many other stories vying for my attention in my head that it's hard to pull anything cohesive out of the quagmire. I do plan on eventually continuing this, including ritual consumption flesh and weaving canon elements in to the story line (hello there, physionic Yautja). At the moment however, I am in two extraordinarily demanding courses at Uni, and as mentioned, am experiencing story schizophrenia.
I'm not particularly looking for hand outs, though I do always appreciate your feedback (even if I never respond to it individually, because personally it drives me mad when other authors do it. Just the facts).

Cheers,
Helix