Tusktaker's Secret Part 3

Lorka composed herself before she entered her home. She didn’t want her mom to see her grinning from ear to ear.
She trudged into the house as though it was just a normal day. She hummed quietly as she sat down at the family table and played with her phone while her mother was washing dishes.
“So how was your day sweetie?”
“Mmmm the usual. Nerada got into a fight with some oni bitch. They damn near tore each other’s hair out. English was boring.  I practically slept through it today. I’ve also got a field trip form for you to sign.”
Radha turned around and arched an eyebrow. “Lorka, don’t play with your mother. What happened with Thomas?”
Lorka examined her finger nails. “Oh that? Yeah, he was really happy about the book. He said something about going on a date this weekend?”
Radha sat down the plate she was washing. “No!”
Lorka smiled and stood up “Yes!”
Radha picked her daughter up in a hug and twirled her around. “I am so proud of you! Ohhhh, this is fantastic! I bet you pinned him against the wall and made him yours right there.”
“Mom…squeezing too tight…can’t breathe” her mother relaxed her arms a bit and Lorka let out a sigh of relief. “Well, not exactly. You know how conservative humans are about that thing. But he did…sort of kiss me on the lips.”
Radha playfully punched her daughter on the arm “Well look at you! On your way to your first relationship! So where is this alleged first date happening.”
Lorka held up her phone. “He wants to take me to an art museum. His mom got tickets for him, but she couldn’t go. So he was going to go by himself but now he’s got me! He did say I needed to wear something fancy, so I don’t know what to do about that…”
A mischievous glint flashed across Radha’s eyes. “Lorka my dear, this is a formal event! How about I show you something I’ve been preparing for you when the time came?”
She hurried Lorka into the living room and ran up the stairs. “Close your eyes sweetie, this is a surprise.”
She waited until she heard her mother come down the stairs again. “Okay, you can open them!”
 Lorka’s mouth dropped on open. “Is that….”
“Yup” Radha grinned
“And you sewed that just for me?”
“Yup!” her grin widened.
“Mom, this is going to give him a heart attack!”
Her mother arched an eyebrow suggestively. “Dear, that’s the idea.”
Lorka squeezed her mother in a massive hug. “You are the best mother ever.”
Radha snorted and feigned humbleness “Oh, I try dear. But I guarantee you, when Thomas sees you wearing this, his heart will be yours.”
Lorka smiled. Now all she had to do was contain her patience till next weekend.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was still a couple more days before the date. Lorka had been chatting with Thomas over text.
“Hey, do you want to meet up at lunch tomorrow?” Thomas asked
 “What about the girls? Won’t they think that’s suspicious?”
 “Well duh, just feed them some excuse and come meet me under the bleachers by the track. I’ve got a new book to share if you’re interested.”
 “Great! I’ll make a dessert; we can snack on it while we talk.”
“This is sounding an awful lot like a date Lorka; I thought we agreed that’d be Saturday?
“Thomas, believe me. This is just us hanging out. You’d be able to tell if it was a date or not.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next day, Thomas sat by the bleachers playing with his phone. He wasn’t going to eat till Lorka showed up. That would just be rude. Still, he wondered what was taking her so long.
“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting. The girls were kinda annoyed but I told them I had to take care of some business. I kinda implied it involved a guy…”
Thomas arched an eyebrow. “Well, you’re not lying. Still, it’d be funny to see the look on their faces if they knew it was me.”
Lorka sat down next to him with a smile, a small box of homemade treats in her hand.
She popped it open and threw Thomas one of the treats.
“Here, try this. It’s good.”
It looked like something between a root and a pastry. Thomas took a bite and it damn near broke his tooth. “Oh damn, that’s hard! I feel like I chipped a tooth.”
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Lemme have a look.” She scanned his mouth. No serious damage. She let out a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry…this is sweet root. It’s an orc sweet. I guess humans can’t really eat them without these” she said as she pointed to her tusks.
Thomas broke off a part of the root and slid it inside his mouth. “Mmmm, it’s really good. Actually, it’s not that different from eating a jawbreaker if you just kinda suck on it.”
Lorka smiled. Thomas always knew what to do to make her feel better. Even when she screwed up.

“So what book do you have for me today?” she asked.
Thomas pulled out an old copy of Watership Down and tossed it to her.
“It’s a book about talking rabbits and their culture.”
Lorka gave him a skeptical book as she examined it. “Thomas, I respect your reading choices…but isn’t this a bit kiddy for you?”
He shook his head. “Not really. It has a lot of tribal lore involving the rabbit’s society. Plus it’s pretty gruesome. The first chapter starts off with most of their burrow getting gassed by humans, and later parts involve a war with a rival rabbit clan. I think you’d enjoy it.”
Lorka snorted and put it into her backpack. “Sounds very orcy for a book about rabbits. You think I’ll like it as much as Owen Meany?”
Thomas shrugged “I enjoyed it. If you’ve ever read the Red Wall series, it almost feels like a more low-tech version of that.”
Lorka’s eyes sparkled “Oh I loved Red Wall! It was my favorite series growing up. Mom used to read it to me when dad wasn’t home. I always wanted to be Mariel Gullwhacker when I grew up! I used to carry around a knotted up rope and try to whack birds with it. She was so badass! I loved the badger matrons too; they were all so tough and smart. I always admired that.”
“I’m sure if you loved Red Wall, you’ll love this. It’s no Owen Meany though so don’t get your hopes up.”
Lorka laughed and playfully ruffled Thomas’s hair. He hadn’t really noticed, but she had been inching closer the entire time they’d been talking. When she sat her hand down, it was right on top of Thomas’s. She blushed and pulled her hand back.
Thomas gave her a smirk. “I guess even Miss Big Bad Orc is afraid of a little handholding.”
“Af-afraid, I don’t know what you’re talking abou-“Thomas gently grabbed her hand and wrapped his fingers around hers. She was incredibly warm. Her hand was slightly calloused, but still soft in areas. Lorka tried not to look Thomas in the face. She knew she was blushing hard.
“Thank you.” Lorka said, her head still turned to avoid Thomas’s gaze.
“For what?”
“Being the first person to not think I’m weird for reading or doing un-orcy things outside my mom. It got really lonely at times.”
Thomas laughed. “You know you aren’t a charity case right? I’m hanging out with you because I like being around you. You don’t have any reason to thank me.
“Still… thank you.”
Thomas smiled “My pleasure.”
They just stayed there like that for a while, munching on sweet root and holding each other’s hands while talking about books.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next couple days passed quickly and it was almost time for the date.
On Friday, Lorka grumbled as she looked over the material for her next English exam. Thomas turned around in his seat to look at her. “Having some trouble, Lorka?”
 Lorka sighed as she sat down the study guide and put a hand over her brow. “I fucking suck at English. I really can’t afford to fail another one of these.”
“Not to brag, but I got a 95 and a 98 on the last two tests. How about you come over tonight and we work on it together? We can hang out a little bit afterwards.”
Lorka gave him a playful tap on the shoulder with her fist. “Sounds great. I need to stop by my place and get some stuff before I come over.”
“You need a ride? I’ve got my mom’s car.” Thomas asked.
Lorka thought about it for a moment. “Nah, I can get my Mom to drop me off.”
“Cool I’ll text you my address.”

Afterschool, Lorka made her way back to her house to grab her computer and some notes she needed. Her mom was gracious enough to drive her to Thomas’ place, but she was being rather…embracing about the whole thing.
“My my, of all the things I’d be doing tonight, I didn’t expect to drop my daughter off at her boyfriend’s house.”
Lorka’s face turned red. “It isn’t a date! We’re just working on some school work!”
“Whatever you say dear, just be sure if you do anything to use protection. I’m not quite ready to be a grandmother...yet.”
Lorka slugged her mother on the arm. Hard. Radha let out a throaty laugh. Ugh, why did she have to make this weird? They were just hanging out as friends tonight. No reason for her mom to make it sound like something was going to happen…
Thomas lived in a pretty decent neighborhood, surrounded by some upper-crust folks. Radha saw a couple danuki and inari walking outside with their children.  It didn’t take long to find his house, it was a decent sized two story building situated between two other houses. Lorka popped out of the car and grabbed her stuff. Before she left, Radha called out to her daughter. “Good luck! Remember to be gentle with him; you don’t want to break the poor boy!”
Lorka slammed the car door shut and her mother drove off laughing. Seriously, what was her problem? That woman needed to get her mind out of the gutter…

Thomas opened the door and smiled when he saw his pretty green-skinned guest. “Hey, I heard you pull up. Come in!”
Lorka stepped over the threshold and noticed a couple pair of shoes by the door. “Go ahead and take yours off. Mom is a stickler about keeping the carpet clean, and it’s that or steam vacuum every couple months.” She slid her shoes next to Thomas’s.
Her host led her to a small dining room. Lorka takes the time to glance through some of the rooms. The house is rather austere. Not much in the way of furniture, nick-nacks or wall furnishings. It didn't feel very homey, honestly. He walked to the cupboards and pulled out some silverware. “Have you eaten yet?”
“I got something earlier, but I could go for something small.”
Thomas went to the fridge and began pulling out some tuffer wear and storage containers. “Mom goes out of town a lot on business. She usually makes me food for a while so I don’t just get fat off fast food. You want anything thing in particular?”
“Just toss me a drink and some of whatever you’re having.”
Thomas pours some food into a pair of bowels and sets the oven for 40 minutes. He tosses Lorka a coke and sets beside her. “We can talk about English while we wait for the food to heat. “
Lorka opens her notebook and Thomas begins to give her directions on her English. Thomas notes she struggles a great deal on verb usage. Orc langue is apparently much more focused on present tense, giving her some issues with the large number of verbs in English formed out of past tense  She also has a harder time with English’s many homophones like wood versus would, see versus sea, etc. etc. It’s easy for her to convey them by speech, but she often mixes them up on paper. Thomas gently guides her when she gets frustrated, giving her time to bluster out her frustrations. He chuckled in his head when he caught an error and she claimed “I knew that was a wrong, I was just testing you!” Lorka is full of a lot of confidence on the surface, but deep down Thomas can tell she’s a bit unsure of herself. Most of her mistakes aren’t that bad, she just makes so many small ones it causes her writing quality to drop.
After a while they finish and Thomas pulls the cooking out of the oven and handed Lorka a plate. Its teriyaki chicken and rice with some mixed vegetables.
“Mmmm, this tastes pretty good! You’re mom’s a solid cook!” she scarfed down the bowel in a couple of minutes and rested her hand on her full stomach.
 Thomas let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good, I was worried you wouldn’t like it! Actually I made it, just thought I could throw my mom under the bus if you hated it.”
She playfully popped Thomas on the shoulder. “You are a sneaky little human aren’t you?”
“Eh, only when you’re involved I guess. “He rubbed his shoulder where she popped him. He couldn’t help but feel proud of his cooking. Still, there session earlier was bothering him. “Was I able to help any with your English skills?”
She smiled at him. “Yeah I think I got a better grasp on the material thanks to you! You really saved my hide!”
It doesn’t seem like that’s the full extent of it. Her mistakes were amateur yes, but they should have been caught and pointed out to Lorka by now. “Have you ever had a tutor before, Lorka?
The bowel she’s holding cracks as she tightens her grip around it. “No, and I don’t need one! I can make it on my own work; I don’t need help from some tutor!”
Ouch, might have hit a weak spot there. “How about I continue to help you then. As a friend.”
Lorka’s grip softens and she sighs. “Yeah…I’d like that. But in return I have to do something for you. Otherwise it’s an uneven trade.”
A sinister glimmer shot through Thomas’s eyes. “Really now? I can think of something I’ve wanted to do with you. We could try it now, if you like.”
Lorka shifts back in her chair slightly, somewhat unnerved by Thomas’ sudden enthusiasm.
“W-within reason of course. And it can’t be something I would hate.” She stutters out.
Thomas grinned from ear to ear. “Oh I assure you, you’ll enjoy it a lot.”
He grabs her by the hand and begins to pull her down the hallway. “C’mon, I want to have plenty of time for us to enjoy ourselves before your mom comes back!”
Thomas couldn’t see it but she was blushing HARD. Oh god, this was moving so fast. Was Mom right? Should she have brought protection? Crap crap crap, why didn’t they teach classes on how to deal with human boys!
They raced up the stairs and Thomas flung open his door. “C’mon, this is gonna be a lot of fun!”
As he closed the door, Lorka couldn’t help but wonder what she had gotten herself into.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thomas’ room was nothing like the rest of the house. Clothes were strewn over the floor. She could see a couple of leftover drinking glasses and noodle cups by his computer station. His walls were lined with posters from various movies. He had a huge book shelf, with books spanning most genres, though most tended to be sci-fi and fantasy or classics. In short, a typical nerd's room. But what impressed Lorka the most was the sheer amount of robot related material. He had a large collection of little plastic robot figures carefully displayed in a glass case. They looked extremely well-detailed.

Lorka let out a low whistle. “Thomas, I knew you were a nerd but I didn't know how much of a nerd you really were."
Thomas laughed, "I’ll take that as a compliment. Come to think of it, I never thought one of my bullies would ever be in here. It's kinda weird in away."
Lorka blushed as she sat on his bed. "I think there are a lot of things over the last couple of day you never thought we'd do together."
He sits down next to her and puts a hand over hers. "Yeah."
Lorka shifts anxiously. Her thoughts going a mile a minute. 'Oh man, what do I do? What do I say? I thought I was ready for this why am I not ready for this?'
Thomas pokes her and she lets out a yelp. "You seem lost in thought. What's up?"
She bit her lip. "Thomas...have you ever had sex before?"
If Thomas had a drink in his mouth he would have done a spit take. "What"
Lorka blushed. "Have you fucked anyone or not!?"
 His expression turns serious "...No. I don't think anyone human or monster has been interested in me in the slightest, sexually or otherwise. It's been kind of a running theme in my life.”

Oh, that's too sad, Lorka thinks. He looks like a little puppy. Lorka could never resist puppies. She gives him a playful shove. "I'm interested in you."
Thomas smiles weakly. He appreciated Lorka a lot. The past couple of days had been a breath of fresh air from his stale existence. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“All right nerd so how are we doing this? Am I stripping you, or are you stripping me?
“What? No! Where did you get that idea?”
“Well earlier you made it sound like in exchange for your help you wanted to….y’know. Uh, Bone.”
Thomas started laughing chuckling at first and then rolling onto the bed, clutching his sides.
“Hey, stop laughing! What’s so funny?”
Thomas wiped a tear from his eyes. “Lorka, I’m not going to make you have sex with me so you can pass English!”
Oddly enough, she felt disappointed. “Well what are we doing then?”
Thomas pops open his closet revealing a startling array of discs, consoles, and controllers.
Thomas gives a solemn nod to himself. “Video games, Lorka, we are going to play videogames. Specifically, we are going to play the greatest fighting game of all time. Super Fighting Mecha Titans 5-Full Metal.”
Lorka snorted and put a hand over her mouth trying to hide her mirth. “Oh my god Thomas, you are such a nerd.”
He looks somewhat deflated. “C’mon Lorka, its fuuuuun. You get to beat the crap out of each other as giant robots!”
“Neeeeerd!” she jeers.
“But…but…”
“Neeeeeeeeeeeerd!” she laughs again.
Thomas is in full pout mode. “Fine, we can do something else.”
Lorka brushes a hand over his cheek and leans in close to his ear. “I happen to find nerds very attractive, Thomas. “She whispers.
Thomas gulps and leaps up. He busies himself with setting up the console and the controllers, trying to hid his embarrassment.
Okay, she had to give her mother some credit. The whole teasing thing was pretty great. Well when it was done to someone else.
”You know messing with you is awfully fun.”
Thomas snorted. “I’m glad I can be such a source of entertainment. Are you ready to begin or what?”
 “Of course, let’s do it! Just warning you though, I’m pretty competitive.”

Thomas tossed her a controller and sat down next to her. “Okay, have you ever played any games like this before?”
“Yeah actually. Rakka is pretty obsessed with fighting games and she uses me as practice dummy. I mean, I’m not great but I can do what I can.”
“All right cool, this game isn’t super complicated if you know how to play other 3d fighters. So you should be good.
Thomas turns on the console and a bright light flashes across the screen as a Japanese voice actor pipes up “Flesh or Steel, Real Warriors fight with their Hearts!”
Lorka laughs. “Oh man, that was some bad Engrish”
“Get used to it. This game was created as a love letter to classic giant robot tropes and over the top cheesiness. It’s part of the charm. All right. Lemme explain how this works. It’s got mechanics similar to games like Tekken or Soul Calibur in terms of movements, blocking, chaining combos. But there are a few different mechanics. You have a stun gauge, kind of like in Street Fighter III. If you get fully stunned, you go into System Down. Then you are completely vulnerable and if you don’t get out in time, your opponent can use his super on you. There are some environment traps that vary from level to level, but we can get to that when you see them. Now which character do you want to try?”
Lorka scrolls through the list. She always tries to play girl characters if she can. It makes her feel more comfortable when she can place herself in a character’s shoes.
She lands on a cute purple robot that resembles something out of Sailor Moon. “Who’s this one?”
“Metal Mika, your typical Magical Girl if she was a giant death robot.  Shoots lots of projectiles and has some nasty long range stuns. Completely worthless up close though.
Lorka frowns. She isn’t a fan of playing the range game. She moves on to another. This one has a feminine shape but it has a much more subdued design with black armor and a pair of wrist mounted blades.
“What does she do?”
“Black Swallow, mechanoid ninja up scaled to assassinate other robots. She’s quick, but she relies a lot on stringing combos together and using escapes to survive.
“Not my thing. Who’s a girl robot that hits hard and fast?”
Thomas grins “Ah then you’ll want to try out Virago. She was originally a robot maid, but after her scientist father died, she uploaded herself into a mecha construct to protect the world against other robots. She’s quick but hits like a Mack truck. She’s a real lightning bruiser.
She moves the select cursor over Virago. She’s sculpted like a lithe dancer, with red armored plating that looks designed to minimize air resistance and maximize high speed performance.  There is something about her design that looks elegant and deadly at the same time. “Wow, she looks badass! Definitely going with her!” Lorka exclaims.
Thomas pulls Lorka into practice mode and they go over Virago’s move list. Virago hits hard and fast, but it takes longer for her stun gauge to deplete because of her light armor. However, to compensate for her lack of escapes, unlike most speedster character, she is able to system down someone much faster because of her strength. She also has a dash to get through projectiles, mitigating her lacking range game. “All right, I think I got a handle on her. Let’s try this out for real.”

Thomas quickly flicks his cursor over a skull faced junk yard monstrosity with giant exhaust pipes sticking out of his back and a metal S riveted onto his chest. “Humung S, the resident mighty glacier and the strongest character in the game. Also my personal favorite. All right, let’s get started!”
The screen flashes as they select their characters.  The bad Engrish Announcer speaks up again. “Win or Lose, Blaze with Fighting Spirit!”
Both characters materialize on screen in the streets of a sprawling Asian metropolis. Virago shoots Humung S a derisive glare “Gutter trash detected. Removing debris from the premise.”
Steam shoots out of Humung S’s exhaust pipes as he cracks his knuckles “You’re gonna be a lot less pretty when I’m done with yah!”
READY? MASH METAL!
Humung S pulls a slab of concrete out of the ground and chunks it at Virago. Luckily, Virago speeds through it using her Flash Dash and gets in range to land her first series of hits. Humung S takes a couple solid hits before he responds with a lariat, spinning Virago backwards into a building.  Virago hops back on her feet as Humung S lunges in for a grab. She narrowly avoids it by doing a backflip and responds with another series of explosive assisted punches to his backside. She’s gotten off a fair number of hits but the junkyard titan is tough, he still has plenty of health to stay in the fight. Overconfident in her early success, the crimson robot gets taken off guard when Humung S roars and charges her with a surprising burst of speed.  The junkbot grabs her by the legs and pulls her into the air like a ragdoll before slamming her back into the earth, leaving a massive crater in the pavement of the city street. Virago responds with a rocket assisted uppercut, breaking his jaw clean off. Angered, red steam billows out of the wounded robot’s back as he fire his massive right arm in a rocket grab. The fingers clench around Virago’s torso and he quickly reels her in before delivering a head-butt right to Virago’s face. Her face plate flies off, revealing the circuitry underneath before she crumples to the ground. A red SYSTEM DOWN flashes over her stun gauge. She doesn’t have much health left and she’s completely at Humung S’s mercy.
“Now one of the cool features of this game is if you initiate a Super that would kill an enemy, you do a unique finishing move.” Thomas explains.
Humung S roars as he picks up Virago by the head and then sends a piston-powered punch into her abdomen, completely pulping her torso and sending her limbs in all directions. The Junk Titan looks at the players and lets out a roar of triumph before crushing the fembot’s severed head in his hand.
PLAYER 1 WINS! REMATCH?
. “Wow that was…”
“Awesome?”
“Excessively violent.”
Thomas frowns “Is that good or bad?”
Lorka ruffles his hair. “Bad because I lost. Good when I get to turn your guy into a pile of scrap. Let’s go again!”
Easier said than done. Thomas wasn’t kidding when he said Humung S was his favorite. She was able to whittle down his health a fair number of times, but she needed to get close to deal damage and the damn junkbot hit like a freight train. She was getting better though, she just needed to learn how to utilize Virago’s combos to get more damage in on Thomas before he could grab her.
After 7 matches Lorka was getting tired of losing. She was competitive by nature. And losing this much to a weak little human, no matter how cute he was, was getting under her skin. Time to try some alternative tactics. “How about we make this more interesting. Let’s raise the stakes.”
Thomas perks up. “I’m listening.”
“Next round, whoever wins gets to make the loser do an activity of their choice.”
Thomas snorts. “That’s not exactly fair. You don’t have much experience and I play this game all the time. I’d be taking advantage of you.”
Lorka looked at him seductively before brushing some loose hair from her face. “Maybe I want you to.”
Thomas gulped. “Okay, deal.”
The fight played out like any other. Lorka managed to barely stay ahead of Thomas by locking together some combos but his patience and high strength made it hard to get any good openings. As they were nearing the conclusion of the fight, Lorka gently leaned next to Thomas and planted a delicate kiss on his neck.  His head jerked in her direction “Ack Lorka! He was distracted. And Humung S was completely vulnerable. She grinned as Virago landed a series of high powered blows into Humung S’s torso.  The robot reeled as POWER DOWN flashed over his stun gauge.
Virago took an appraising look at her stunned opponent. “Weak points analyzed”. The mechanical fury moved in a blur that would have made a Mantis Shrimp Girl proud as she hammered a blow into each weak spot on his body. After a couple seconds of high speed fisticuffs, she faced the screen and bowed. Humung S stood there a bit, teetering before his massive body caved in on itself, leaving nothing but a pile of debris.
SPLENDID PERFORMANCE! PLAYER 2 WINS! REMATCH?

Thomas stared at the screen, his mouth agape. “You cheater! That’s completely unfair!”
Lorka pinned Thomas to the bed, her eyes agleam with passion. “All’s fair in love and war Thomas. I think that’s what you humans say anyway. Now you have to do what I want. And I want you to kiss me.”
Thomas stares up at her. God she’s beautiful.
Lorka’s expression shifts. She looks nervous. “Wh-what? I’m sorry, am I being too forward? I’ve never really had much experience with boys. I’ll just-MMMHPF!” Lorka’s sentence goes unfinished as Thomas pulls her in for a kiss. They gently lock lips, their tongues intertwining. Her lips are soft, and as she runs her tongue along the inside of Thomas’s mouth he catches a vague hint of cinnamon. Both of them pull closer as they kiss, afraid the other will try to let go first. Thomas’s hands begin to roam over Lorka’s body, his inhibitions severed by her embrace. He gently cups his hands around one of her breast while she’s distracted. It so soft and warm. She pulls back and let’s a satisfied sigh as he gently kneads her flesh. “You aren’t a bad kisser, human.”
Thomas smiles. “Neither are you, orc. Even with those pointy tusks.”
“Yeah they can be a real pain sometimes.” She leans into his neck and gives him a little nip on the neck. He gasps at the gentle tension as she playfully brushes her teeth over the soft flesh of his neck. Lorka looks into his eyes and grins. “But they have their uses.”
Before the two can do anything else, Lorka’s phone starts ringing.
Lorka lets out a sigh and grumbles in frustration. “That’s probably my Mom. Hold on”
She answers the phone, annoyance spread across her face. “Yes. Why didn’t you just text me?”
Her anger washed away, replaced with embarrassment. “I’m sorry I didn’t see them. We were kind of busy. “
Thomas hears a loud laugh ring out of the receiver of the phone. Lorka growls as she ends the call and shoves the phone back in her pocket.
“I take it that was her?”
“Ugh, yes. I guess we’ll have to continue this tomorrow.”
Thomas shifts uneasily. “Lorka…I know we said we’d wait till the date to talk about our feelings but…” Lorka interrupts, placing a finger over his lips.
“Wait till tomorrow my little Azu’ka. We haven’t even had our first date yet.”
Thomas arches an eyebrow in disbelief. “This doesn’t count?”
Lorka lets out a laugh at Thomas’s ignorance, unware of what she has in store. “Believe me Thomas; you would know if you were on a date with me.”

Thomas walked her to the door and Lorka put her shoes back on before turning around and regarding her host.
She gives him a quick peck on the cheek. “Hey it was fun, thanks for all the help with English. See you tomorrow okay?”
Thomas waves as she gets in her mother’s car and watches them drive off down the road. He sighs as he heads back upstairs to finish working on a small project. He sits down and absentmindedly plays with some model parts he was working with before setting them down in frustration.  He climbs into bed and turns out the light. As far as he was concerned, tomorrow just can’t seem to come fast enough.