Grife. My boyfriend is probably the sweetest, most charming, warmest guy you'll ever meet. And he thinks I'm wonderful. So why do I keep thinking about a cranky, completely antisocial genius who blows his lab up on a regular basis, has to be dragged away from his experiments, and who won't even look at me?

It's not the...you know. The Durlan thing. I was freaked out at first, yeah. I feel kind of guilty about that now, acting like some anti-Durlan bigot. I was so ashamed when I heard Winath'd tried to attack Durla--I mean, even if it'd been Cham, it's not like that's the whole planet's fault! I didn't think like that, I swear I didn't. It was just--I mean--I'd only just learned he could speak Interlac...

That looks really...stupid. It...I...he just seemed so alien. I never even thought about him as a date!

And it's hard to get out of your mind. Even now. Cham'll be holding me, and I'll remember how his flesh just melts, and I have to not-think about it, hard. I mean, he never acts worried that I'm going to fry him...

One good thing about Brainy, he could care less what people look like. As long as they're not blonde, anyway...

I'm not thinking about Brainy.

I care about Cham, I really do. I like going out with him...talking and dancing and kissing... I asked him if Durlans kissed, and he grinned at me and said no, but they were very fast learners.

Then he showed me.

For never having done it before, he was really good...

Sometimes I just have to start giggling, it's all so insane. Me--little Ayla Ranzz from Winath, getting my first kiss from a Durlan shapeshifter and mooning over a green-skinned genius from Colu...

Brainy again. Grife. I can't get him out of my head today.

Well, isn't that the problem, Ayla?

It's easy with Cham, really easy. His eyes light up when he sees me--nobody ever did that before! It's so nice. And he laughs, and teases--but he'd never hurt me. It's fun--like playing, like flying, like dancing. It's easy.

Brainy is more like tug-of-war. You have to shove and tug and dig in your heels to get anywhere. But I've been fighting with Garth since forever, I'm used to that. And sometimes...

...I went into his lab today--I wanted to thank him for helping Kinetix. He's pretty much put up "no trespassing" signs, but if you're careful, you can stop in without interrupting him or making anything go boom. He growled at me--and when I said "thank you," he looked so surprised. Doesn't anybody ever tell him thank you? He never tells us...but some days I wonder if anyone ever taught him how. What's it like, on Colu? Or is that just Brainy?

Either way, I don't think he knew what to say. So I added, "Even if we did have to drag you away from your theories first," and he relaxed and said something sarcastic. We know how to argue.

It felt like...coming home.

It's easy with Cham. But what if I like hard?