I didn't want to see him kissing her anymore. I couldn't. It was hurting way too much. With tears stinging my eyes and blurring my vision, I stumbled to the food store. Shaking, I grabbed a few pieces of food and a bottle of water and disappeared into my allocated room. A low tremor rumbled through the hanger, which I assumed was a ship either taking off or landing. I closed the door and looked for a way to lock it, but there didn't appear to be one. I thought about moving one of the storage boxes in front of the door to block it, but I was feeling weak and shaky, like all my energy was being drained. I didn't want to see Keleon ... I needed to block the door.

But who was I kidding? It's not like he wanted to see me any more anyway. He was otherwise engaged. I collapsed on my pile of blankets, thinking I should really eat something, but I wasn't convinced my stomach would hold onto it. I blinked and felt my cheeks get wet, as anger turned to dejection and self-pity.

I was so stupid to think that someone as stunning as Keleon would only be exclusively interested in me. He could have anyone he wanted. Mia was pretty, and he was pansexual. It made sense.

I peeled open a ration pack and slowly forced the food down, with something that was green and fresh, and if I could have tasted it under normal circumstances, probably would have been sweet and enjoyable. But it was tainted with the bitterness of rejection, and after that I still had the task of forcing it past the lump in my throat. At least I was managing to keep it down. The tears hadn't stopped falling though. If anything, there were more and more of them. I had been right there watching. Surely, he must have been aware of that?

I chastised myself for letting myself get so wrapped up in someone I hardly knew.

I managed to finish the rest of the food and had just curled up on my blanket in a foetal position, when there was a soft knock on my door. I didn't answer.

The door opened a crack and Keleon poked his head round.

"Damon?" his soft voice reached out.

My body tensed, but I didn't change position.

I answered him with venom in my tone.

"What."

"You disappeared suddenly."

"No shit."

"Are you upset?"

"What the fuck do you think?"

"I think you're upset."

"I am upset, Keleon."

He entered the room fully and closed the door softly behind him.

"I don't understand why. Can I help? Do you want to talk about it?"

The anger started building again and I pulled one of the blankets over my head, growling loudly. There was another low-level rumble in the hanger, but I was too angry to process it properly. How could he not know what I was upset about?

I tried to compose myself and pulled my head out from under the blanket.

"You kissed Mia."

"Yes."

"Just 'yes'? That's it? Just 'yes'?"

I rubbed my hands through my hair in frustration.

"I'm not sure what else I should be saying."

I knew my tone was angry. I was nearly growling at him.

"Jesus Christ, Keleon. I thought ... I mean, it felt like we were a couple. I thought I was the one you were with."

He looked confused.

"So, once we've kissed each other, we're bonded for life?"

I couldn't work out whether this was sarcasm or naivety. If it were anyone else, I would have gone for the former, but this was Keleon, and I already felt like he didn't have too much experience with ... well, people in general.

Besides, he looked like he was genuinely waiting for an answer, and he had come to talk to me off his own back. His tone was curious, not angry. I ran my hands through my hair again.

"No, we're not bonded for life or anything. It's just ... I just ... you know, though what we had was special."

"I thought so too."

"So why did you go and kiss Mia?"

"Because I like her."

"Because you like her?" Jesus Christ. Jealousy gripped me all over again. "And what about me?"

"I still like you, Damon. I don't understand why you think I might not? I'd be happy to kiss you as well." His voice was full of frustration. "You were the one who told me that kissing was for people who like each other."

"For people who ... Oh, my God."

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose to try to calm myself down. If this had been anyone else, I would have told them to go to hell. But I had this uneasy feeling that he genuinely believed every word he said. Literally.

I inhaled deeply and breathed it out slowly, trying to think this through.

"Sit down," I instructed, and he came and sat on the blankets near me, but not too close.

In my mind, I went over our conversation on our journey here, the one he had just referred to, where we were talking about me kissing him.

"Why did you do it? Was there some reason?"

"It means that I like you. It means I like you a lot."

I realised that he was right; I had told him that. I also recognised that he and Mia had been good friends for a long time, and as such, probably fell under the definition of 'liked each other a lot.' I took another deep breath.

"I did say that, didn't I? That I kissed you because I liked you a lot."

"You did," he agreed, nodding.

"OK, then I need to clarify what I meant," I said, slowly realising that the cause of the problem may that he may have taken me more literally than I had intended. I reminded myself that he had spent a lot of his adult life travelling, and he may not understand how relationships work. "Kissing is for people who like each other a lot. But it's not usual practice to kiss everyone you like. People often find one special person that they like more than all the rest. The kisses tend to be reserved just for that special person and not for anyone else."

"Oh," Keleon blinked. He looked like he was legitimately processing what I'd just said.

"Yeah, so, by kissing you, I was trying to tell you that I wanted you to be my special person," I continued. Calmer now, I moved closer to him. I took his hand in mine and held it gently. "By kissing me back, I thought maybe you wanted me to be your special person too. Then when you kissed Mia, I thought you no longer wanted me."

"OK," he said, almost child-like in his innocence. "So, does Mia now think I want her to be my special person?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I've only just met her, and I don't know what she'll think. But you should probably choose which one of us you want to be kissing, so that nobody gets confused or hurt."

"In which case, I choose you," said Keleon, without any hesitation. "It feels right with you. I'm not sure exactly how to explain it."

Relief flooded through me. There was certainty in his tone about the decision he'd just made. The conviction in his voice was enough proof that he really had just interpreted my previous words in a very precise manner, and this was all a huge misunderstanding.

Reassured, I dried my eyes with the bottom of my T-shirt.

"It sounds like we both got confused," I offered. "I'm sorry for being angry with you. I just didn't understand why you were kissing Mia, and it upset me." I sighed. "Maybe this is my fault. You told me you hadn't been kissed before, so I should have realised there are other things that come with kissing that you might not know. People also normally formalise that kind of relationship with words. So," I took a breath and steadied myself, "I'm sorry for not doing this earlier, I should have made it clearer that I wanted you to be my boyfriend."

He cocked his head slightly and raised an eyebrow.

"Boyfriend?"

This was Keleon. Of course he didn't know what a boyfriend was.

"The special person."

"I see."

"So, I'm sorry for not making it very clear before. Let me try to rectify that now." I shuffled even closer over the blankets and turned his hand over in mine. "I'd like to ask you to be my boyfriend. Only if you want to, of course. However, before you answer, I want to be clear, that means that we'd only kiss each other and nobody else. It would be for as long as we both wanted. When one of us doesn't want that arrangement anymore, we'd just tell the other one, and then we wouldn't be boyfriends anymore, and there would be no more kissing each other."

I hoped that was clear enough for him.

"OK, I understand," he nodded. "That sounds like something I want. But this is all new to me, so there may be other things that I don't understand. What happens then?"

"Then we work it out." I gave him a smile to let him know it was OK. "That's part of being boyfriends."

I closed the small remaining distance between us and hugged him. It felt like we both needed it.

"I didn't like seeing you upset," Keleon murmured against my neck as his arms reciprocated my embrace. "Or knowing that I did something to trigger it. I really didn't know it would hurt you like that."

"I know, it's OK," I planted a small kiss on his neck as I spoke into it. "Everything you did was with good intentions. You can't be expected to know this stuff if you've never come across it before. I shouldn't have expected you to just know. I'm sorry."

We stayed in that position, with our arms wrapped round each other, for over a minute. It felt nice to be this close to him. Guilt crept over me, as I realised how confused he must have been. I really shouldn't have assumed we were starting a relationship, just because we'd been getting intimate. I was kicking myself for not talking to him about it earlier.

We parted naturally and I pushed his dark hair away from his forehead, but it promptly sprung back to where it had been. I left my arms loosely around the back of his neck.

"You OK?" I asked as I pressed my forehead against his.

"Yeah," he whispered. "You?"

"Yeah," I answered truthfully. "I am now." I thought about what triggered this entire event. "But we should be aware there's someone else that might not be."

"You're right," he acknowledged. "I need to talk to Mia, don't I?"

"It's probably a good idea." I agreed. "I can come with you if you like. Or if you'd rather go alone, that's fine too. Your choice Keleon, I'll do whatever will help you the most."

His ocean-blue eyes looked pensively into mine for a few seconds. "I'd like you to come with me," he decided.

"Then I'll come with you," I smiled at him, releasing his neck and standing up. I held out my hand. "Let's go talk to Mia."