"What?!?" Seika exclaimed. "You're coming over for a sleepover?!?"

I hummed quietly, paying attention to the smells in the room. "Yes, I am, or according to Liki's invitation to a baby-shower somewhere else in space. Since I've only been with him for a month I can't go into zero gravity without at least a year with him."

They sent me their excitement, and I returned the favor. Me and Liki's team went into the next room, which is filled with crates and... . I instantly shifted into attack form and shot a ball of energy at something peaking from the crates on the right side.

The charred remains of a pyrikan crawler got pulled out by Umu's spear. I winced at the smell, but my aggression faded into nothingness. Pyrikan crawlers looked much like sicora crawlers, but with six legs instead, and orange in color. Thank Seika for teaching me that.

Apparently, pyrikans only seem to board ships that have a lot of flammable material on it. It's a good thing that they're going down in numbers, because they can be a dangerous threat.

The male Clica (slice-ah) murmured. "I've never seen a creature that could react so quickly to pyrikans before. Is it something in their sense of smell that can make a slime cat agitated?"

"From all that we know," Liki said. "It could be anything, but your theory seems like the most reasonable."

How did you know? Did you hear me sniffing or something like that? Eh, whatevs. Flicking my ear, I looked to the other side of the room. I couldn't smell anything over there so I shifted back into simple form.

We went through the entire ship, and left to a shuttle towards Cleo's apartment. Coming inside, Seika was resting under a heat lamp with Okapi nearby.

He ran over towards me, reaching up. "Peachy! You're here! I'm so glad that it can stay over for the night!"

"Me too..." Liki sighed, moving his wrist up so I could have my leash taken off. "Nenvira's invitation is on a planet over a few thousand star systems away, and Peachy hasn't been with me for a year yet."

"Like Solis?"

"Yes. Like Solis. Hey Cleo? Can I give tips for Peachy before I go?" He called to the single mom.

"Certainly, otherwise it would be confused if I did something else other than what it's used to."

Liki began explaining, and since my leash had been unhooked I temporarily shifted into flying form, fluttering over to Seika. Okapi was quick to follow me, and gentle petted my back.

"Long time no-see, Peachy." They chirped softly, their right leg twitching.

"Indeed, Solis." I purred back, getting out of the way of the heat lamp, yet still close enough to them.

"Bye." Liki said, waving to me. I raised my tail, tipping the end in mimicry. He chuckled before the doors closed.

"Now what? Does Cleo have a mental schedule?" I asked the dragonet.

They yawned, their eyes opening slowly. "I think she's going to bring us fruit. You don't have to eat the sunburst berries, or the shia fruit."

"What's shia fruit?"

Seika laughed through the link. "The only thing better than sunburst berries! However, they're not planted on Earth for... reasons. Judging from your hate towards the poor, innocent sunbursts, you'll probably despise shias 1000x more."

"Makes sense." I sighed heavily, relaxing into spread form. "But it's still new, so... I'll try it."

They grinned slightly, looking towards the hall. Cleo came out with a bowl of assorted cubed fruits, including peaches, cantaloupes, watermelon, salmonberries, mulberries, sunburst berries, a pinkish blue fruit cut into small slices, and purple lemons. I'm assuming that the pink-blue fruit is the legendary shia fruit.

She placed the bowl in between us. Seika instantly went for the sunbursts, but left me with the shia. I took one slice, a peach-worth of peaches, and a handful of salmonberries.

When was the last time I had salmonberries? It's been nine years since I was a human. Do the math, Katy, but later because you love to procrastinate.

Okapi took a few shia slices, as well as a handful of melon. Hidal took all the mulberries and the only remaining sunburst berry.

I devoured the peaches and salmonberries, but the shia fruit slice was all that remained. Seika had finished her berries, and eyed me to eat it.

Sighing, I took a tiny sip of the slice, only for flavor to explode in my mouth. I had never tasted anything so... so...

So BITTER in my life before!

I backed away from the shia fruit, and went over to the purple lemons, quickly reducing them to nothing. Meanwhile, my great buddy ol' chum nonbinary bread slice was laughing her tail off in the link.

Glaring at her, I growled. "Well, I guess things will have to get personal, then."

With a quick switch to flying form, Seika darted to the ceiling. I followed her, sparking with anger. She yelped once I landed a small spark on her flank, and we both landed on the couch laughing.

***

I can't take it anymore! When is the storm going to come!

My eyes shot open, darting around the dimly lit room. Hidal had came out of bed, staring at me and Seika. He whispered. "I heard you talking to one another, but I could understand it. What's with Peter's children?"

Me and Seika exchanged nervous glances. I sighed heavily. "Yes, you did hear me talk to Peter. His kits are doing fine! They hatched yesterday! How could you hear us? We were using mind link."

He blinked, not used to having a voice in his head despite looking like a seven-year-old. "I don't know how, but I heard you two. If you two can talk, did you have any original names before... mom and Liki came?"

"Yea, my name's actually Seika while Peachy's name is Katy." Seika answered. "We're friends, even if we've absently known about each other in school while we were still humans."

"What's a... human? A sentient being like us and the Clica?"

Me and Seika explained everything. The old human lab, the white aliens killing the humans off, the slime cats appearing and the dragonets escaping. He became angered at the white aliens killing all the humans, and even a little curious on why we turned into slime cats.

After around fifteen minutes of telling each of our sides of the story, he sighed. "We need to find someone who has a dragonet with them, so Liki and Cleo can each talk with you. That way, you don't have to act feral when out of sight, like at the parks."

"I think I know someone," Seika said with a grin. "But we'll cover that after the storm. Katy you better sing so Hidal can hear you."

"I will, I will... let's just get some shuteye..."