The First Time
He surprised her the first time they had sex. After that, she watched him more closely. Now that she knew what to look for, she could see little irregularities, barely curiosities if she hadn't been suspicious. He brought his food into his mouth with his lips more than his fork, and he barely seemed to chew. His bathroom breaks were infrequent at best. He only ever smelled of his aftershave or deodorant, never of sweat or musk.
She confronted him after a week. "So, how long have you been pretending to be human?"
He froze. She'd had doubts, but for a moment he was too still to be human. "I, I don't, um." He stopped.
Enjoying this story? Don't miss the next one!
SUBSCRIBE TO DSF
She put a gentle arm around his shoulders. "It's okay." Her voice was soft and safe. "I'm not angry. I'm not afraid. I just want to know."
So he told her. He'd been hiding among the Earthlings, pretending to be one of them, for thirteen years. He was an amorphous multi-celled organism with exceptional natural crypsis. He thought he might be the last of his kind.
"That's incredible," she said. "But can you take more... creative shapes?"
That was the second time they had sex.
The End
This story was first published on Thursday, February 9th, 2017
We hope you're enjoying
The First Time by
Peter A Schaefer.
Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.
Daily Science Fiction does not have a paywall, but we do have expenses—more than 95% of which are direct payments to authors for their stories. With your $15 membership, less than 6 cents per story, we can continue to provide genre fiction every weekday by email and on the website to thousands of readers for many years to come.
Tell me more!
Support Daily Science Fiction
Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):
Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.
4.9 Rocket Dragons Average
Please join our mailing list and
receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept
100% private):
