I dug my heels into the ground as Astra yanked on our cuffs once more. She leaned back, desperately trying to pull me forward "I thought you said you wanted to find Melbourne?!"

My fingers dug into the corner of the wall, slipping slightly on the smooth surface but ultimately my grip was stronger. "Yeah, that doesn't mean I want to meet a bunch more humans," I argued, trying to shuffle myself further away from her but the sound of metal straining reminded me of my circumstances.

"You've barely met three!"

"Nuh uh, we met the nurse, the receptionist, that bitch of a mail guy who wanted to fuck you, the one that accused us of fucking and-

"Sol, if we want to find out who this guy is our best bet is most likely going to where all of them hang out," She explained, "Humans are very social creatures, especially on their lunch break."

I groaned sinking to the floor "And we have to watch them eat too? Your humans don't have anything that doesn't have a dead animal in it and I actually liked the peyeapple you gave me earlier."

She stopped "You mean the pineapple?" She snorted "You spat that out straight after eating it."

I huffed "It felt like it was trying to chew me back."

"Well isn't it my favourite recently pregnant couple!"

A squeal was heard from down the hall and suddenly a flash of blonde messy hair had run past me and Astra was enveloped in a hug so strong if not for our cuffs she would've been flying back. To cover the cuffs I fell forward to grab her hand instead, making it seem like we'd been holding hands the whole time.

"Tee!" The woman screamed.

"Connie!" Astra screamed back.

I blinked.

'Connie' began rubbing all up on Astra's stomach, pressing her cheek against the cloth as if she could feel something through the suit. "I know I'm being so silly, you're only a few weeks along but omy-" And suddenly Astra was in the air, swung around by the blonde as she screeched in excitement "I'm just so so so so super happy for you!"

Astra tapped her arm in a gesture to put her down and Connie barely put her back on the ground before speaking again. "I mean just look at you!," She grinned, "I bet you're just glowing underneath that," She reached forward to pull the latch on Astra's helmet down and that's when I stepped in.

"We're trying not to expose ourselves to any Martian germs right now," I explained, peeling off her fingers from Astra's head "Very not good for the baby," I shook my head at her as if she was a small child "You understand?"

She nodded sadly "Always the practical one huh Kofi?" Her mouth spread into a strained grin "I'm surprised you even let me hold her at all," She muttered under her breath.

"Kofi's trying to make sure we're as careful as possible," Astra laughed, interlocking her elbow in mine. "Especially after the accident."

Connie slapped her hand over her mouth "I heard about that! I can't believe you guys insisted on doing a check up especially when you're both on leave!" She was yelling at both of us but her disapproving stare stayed on me.

Astra cut in, stepping in front of her fiery gaze "It wasn't anything too bad I just kinda-

"No no no!" Connie stopped her right there, grabbed her arm out of mine and began dragging her to the cafeteria "Everyone needs to hear this story, we were all so super worried."

Astra looked at me as we were both dragged into the place I was just running away from and I could almost see her smirk behind the smooth reflective surface of her helmet.

And now here we were, sitting on a small circular table surrounded by half of the people in the cafeteria. They'd started by coming one by one to say congratulations for the baby but once Astra had started 'telling the story of our vicious attack' most had pulled up chairs to listen in and the ones who hadn't moved had their ears facing us whilst they pretended to focus on their conversations.

"And now I have a twisted arm and blurry vision."

Solemn nods went around the table and some even began to caress Astra's back as she finished the story. "Even when pregnant you still find your way into trouble," Someone commented.

This made a man I'd learned's name was Jordan speak up (however he only went by JJ as most of the people around him referred to him, something I'd be sure to ask Astra about later). "Bravest man I know," he remarked, making the whole table chuckle.

Another blonde guy who looked strikingly familiar to Connie shoved into my shoulder playfully (his name was mentioned but I couldn't for the life of me remember it). "Very nice of you to protect your husband from the Martian," It was said as a joke but something about his face told me that was meant to be something else.

I pinched Astra, making her jump out of the conversation she was in and look at me. "Let me help you get some food babe," I told her as lovingly as one pretending to be someone's fiance could. The whole table kind of cooed and continued their own conversation as I led Astra to the table filled with food.

I snatched the dishing spoon out of her hand when she actually began to serve things on a plate "This isn't what we're here for,"

She held her empty plate in hand "It...isn't?"

"No!" I whisper shouted, catching some people's attention and making me talk softer "No," I cleared my throat "Which one of them is he?"

"Who?" Something clicked in her head "Melbourne?" She shook her head as if I'd just said something funny "None of them."

"So what are we still doing here?"

She grabbed the dishing spoon from my hand and began putting more things on the plate "Keeping up appearances, Kofi," She piled the plate high "We can't just slap names on our chests and say we're someone, we have to act like them. Really sell it."

I followed her as she added more things "And how long will we be," I raised my hand to make air quotes "Selling it."

She shrugged "As long as it takes to get out of here as safely as possible."

I groaned "This would be so much easier without," I waved the cuffs in her face "These," I glanced around at the unsuspecting humans engaging in innocent conversation. You wouldn't even be able to guess they were all cold-hearted planet colonizers. "Show these criminals what I can do."

I could almost feel the power at my fingertips for a second until Astra shoved the plate into my hand. "Let's focus on one problem at a time," She patted my helmet "Okay?"

I had a deep scowl on my face as we found our seats again. I hadn't even noticed what Astra had put in the plate I was holding until someone pointed it out. "Woah, Doctor, shouldn't your wife be eating just a bit more protein?" It was the blonde guy again.

What is his name? seriously.

"That's for him actually," Astra defended "I'm still a bit filled up from breakfast."

This made him snicker "So it's you who's eating like a rabbit Kofi?" I watched in horror as his party fingers moved to touch my food "It's Steak Saturdays, you sure you don't want a nice T-bone for yourself, big guy?"

"I'm on a diet," I commented simply, trying to push his hand away from my meal when I moved what Astra had called the 'salt' and instead it rolled off the table. The urge to flip the whole table crossed my mind but instead, I sunk to my knees to grab it.

My fingertips were close when instead someone picked it up for me, I moved to look at them but my helmet bumped the top of the table making the plate nearly fall off until it was caught by the same person.

Astra helped me up from under the table and that's when I could finally get a good look at them. "You alright there Kofi?"

I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was a new face or just a not-very-remarkable one that I'd forgotten. I'd decided to play it safer with the latter and wanted to go along with pretending I'd known him when Astra swooped in for me.

"Oh he's quite alright Mr Melbourne," She giggled, squeezing tightly onto my arm.

"Teegan c'mon!" He smiled, with every tooth in his mouth "How many times have I told you to call me Ambrose."

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