Humans Are Encountered

Jealousy

When Zork'ak had arrived at the laboratory, Wren was no longer there. Adam said that she cut her hand, and Kace had accompanied her to the medical wing. Xe walked to the room down the hall, attempting to level xer breathing. She's fine she's fine she's fine. Adam said it was a small cut, just needed to be cleaned, but Zork'ak still needed to see her xemself.

Xe walked into the medical wing and automatically froze. Wren was sitting on the bed, her hand freshly bandaged, and Kace was standing over her. He was holding her injured hand, palm up, saying something that made her smile. He was smiling down at her, and there was something about their expressions that made this interaction intimate.

Zork'ak started taking a step back, but Wren noticed xem then. She quickly pulled her hand back from Kace, which made xem feel worse. As if the action was too intimate for xem to see. Xe wanted to go back, to find Adam, to confess this desire to take care of her, to be with her. Instead, xe walked into the room.

"Hey, Zor." Her smile was tight. It made it hard for xem to breathe.

"I came to ensure your injury was well cleaned and bandaged."

She held the hand up. "Yup. Everything's good here." Xe nodded.

Kace had shifted to the side, and he placed one hand on her upper back. "Don't worry, Zor. I have her from here."

Zork'ak found that when Kace called him 'Zor,' he very much wanted to use one of the actions Faradae had taught xem on Kace. It was an interesting feeling, this urge to harm him. Zork'ak looked back to where Kace's hand was touching Wren, the uncomfortable look on Wren's face as she looked at xem, and xe felt a burning hot sensation through xer body.

"I am pleased." Zork'ak turned to leave the room, but Wren stopped xem.

"Zor, where are you going."

Xe froze, taking a beat too long to turn back around. She had stood up, her beautiful eyes wide and bright. She was standing so close to Kace, their shoulders touching, his body just slightly behind hers. Too close. Zork'ak could not breathe. Xe wanted to be that close to her.

"I must speak to Adam." She nodded. "It is ideal that you are not terribly harmed. It should heal nicely."

Xe turned then, trying to make xer steps casual until xe was out of sight. It was then that xe felt the heat flashing over xer body, the sickness in their stomach that signaled poison, the urge to both physically harm something and to sit alone on the roof. Xe was confused, but xer stomach felt tight, and it was so hard to breathe. It felt as if xe had been hit repeatedly in the chest.

Xe found Adam in the laboratory. He joined Zork'ak on a walk back to his quarters, their conversation casual until Adam sealed them in the small room.

"What's wrong? You look as if you just found out we were under some kind of threat."

"I, I am unsure of this feeling. Kace was with Wren in the medical wing. And he, well she, they were close to each other, and they were smiling when I came in, and Wren moved away from Kace when she saw me as if the moment had been intimate."

Adam's eyebrows pinched upwards, his mouth dragging down. "Zor, oh no." He leaned in, wrapping Zork'ak in a hug. "I didn't think that she was interested in anyone."

"I just feel," Zork'ak's talons were flexing. "I feel as if I would both like to lay on the roof in the absence of light where I am alone and like I want to physically harm a material."

Adam nodded. "It's called jealousy."

"It is a terrible emotion. How must I get rid of it?"

Adam laughed a little. "I wish I knew. It means that the person you care about is doing things with a person you want them to do with you. Or it could mean that another person is too close or is doing or saying things with your person, even if they don't agree with it. Either way, you want to protect that person, keep them away from these interactions, and in this situation? I can't help you."

"I must suffer with these urges."

Adam slowly nodded, his mouth sagging. "I'm sorry, Zor. You want to be with her, but you saw her with Kace." His name made another wave of heat flash through xer body. "You want what he has with her."

Zork'ak folded xemself on the ground. "I do. "

"Maybe you should tell her."

"Maybe you should tell Steve."

Adam sat down, too. "Okay, fine. I also get jealous with Steve. Sometimes I see him with Kai or Carrie, and they make him laugh or touch him in a way I want to, and it hurts. I get it."

Xe didn't know what to do with the way his body was constricting his atmospheric intake, his inner organs. Xer temperature didn't feel right, and there felt as if there was a threat to them.

"I don't know what to do, Adam."

Adam sighed, looking into his hands, which were facing upward in his lap. "I don't either."

They sat there in silence, the air thick with that pain, until halfway through second meal. Adam finally made the two of them get up and forced them to go get food. He feigned as if they had been working on a study and had not noticed the cycle. Zork'ak, on the other hand, remained silent and sat next to Adam, down the table from Wren. Xe watched as she talked to Kace, her beautiful smile shining on him. Xe could not function with that heavy weight on xer chest. Xe couldn't even eat.