Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Absolutely not.” Zeb snarled at the wriggling creature in his hands, held out from his body. It whined and flicked a long tongue out to lick his wrist.   

“What? Why not? We keep your pets around,” Zeb fought not to smile as he scrutinized the ginger man around the thing’s fluffy ears. He didn’t like the smirk on Kallus’s face and retreated back behind what could only be the softest Lirian Ferrko he’d seen. It was native to Lira San, a half meter long with stubby little legs and a colour-changing coat. It’s large eyes followed his gaze, chattering actively. 

“They’re not pets, they’re co-workers,” he cocked his head to the side, “and friends, you know what those are, Kal?”  The man chuckled lightly, taking the lithe animal from his boyfriend. It squeaked, using sticky fingers to climb around Kallus’s neck. 

“Amazingly I do know what friends are. I think this little guy could be family ,” Kallus cooed, rubbing a finger behind one fluffy white ear. Zeb groaned, waving a hand before turning back towards the ship. He made it a few paces before realizing he wasn’t being followed. 

“Kal…” he sighed heavily, turning to see the man playing with the ferrko defiantly. His arms crossed, scowl in place as he waited for Kallus to look. 

Once realizing he was being quite firmly ignored in the middle of the landing bay, the Lasat stomped back to the ginger man.

“Alexsandr. It’s not a pet, it’s food at best,” Nothing but chittering. “Where are we going to put a pet? Are you going to want to be stuck in a tin can with a smelly animal?” 

“I live with you,” Kallus responded without missing a beat. Zeb huffed, that was fair.

“Are you going to really want to be in a ship with a smelly camouflage enabled animal? That doesn’t do fun stuff with you—ow!” He grunted as an elbow made contact with his side. It wasn’t enough to hurt, just to get across that he had upset his boyfriend.

Zeb waved his arms helplessly, silently begging Kallus to tell him how to undo this damage. It was a vacation! They were leaving today, this had been planned for rotations! While he couldn’t see the distressed expression he made, Kallus eventually pitied him with a sigh. 

“I understand your point. We can’t bring others here, and I know why, so I just thought… bringing this little guy with us is the closest thing we have to bringing Lira San to others,” Zeb’s heart melted as Kallus smiled down at the ferrko with adoration. The Lasat people had welcomed them both with open arms, and they’d both taken the duty seriously. 

“Right, ah… Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad—“

“Excellent, I’ve been training him and feeding him in secret for the last two months!” Kallus grinned brightly before sprinting off. 

“I—what?” Zeb blinked a few times before turning to find the man halfway up the ramp to their new ship already. “Kal! What do you mean you’ve been feeding—ah karabast!” Grumbling the entire way, he jogged to find out what trouble the love of his life was probably already into.