Author's Note: The sex scene toward the end might be triggering to claustrophobes.
***
Today was the anniversary of the day they'd met. Chrysalis reminisced about how it had happened and what led to it.
***
He had first learned of Leilani's existence through watching her dance videos. He was mesmerized by her beauty and awed by the creativity of her choreography.
Chrysalis was a bioengineered slime person. He was customized by a talent agency for the purpose of identifying creative talent, and for supporting/nurturing it. Except back then, he wasn't called Chrysalis (nor was he called Chrys). He was referred to as Scout because of his job. And because "Scout" sounded like a masculine name, his boss and coworkers agreed to use male pronouns for him, even though neither Scout nor any other such slimes had any biological sex. Scout went along with it though; he had no preference regarding gender pronouns.
Because of the nature of his work, he was designed to have excellent judgment of creative talent and was given a lot of free rein. But, unlike a human, he couldn't get burnout and didn't need to sleep.
Though slimes such as himself were customized for specific roles, every one of them was designed to be very empathic (and most of them fairly submissive) and there were built-in roadblocks against anyone modifying their empathic capabilities to decrease them beneath a critical threshold. The slimes were also uniquely complex, with various desires unrelated to their primary goals. This was to make them even more humanlike/relatable and thus less threatening to the general public. They also started off small (small enough to sit on the palm a human hand), but could grow if fed a surplus beyond what they needed to maintain their current sizes and activity levels. Their small initial size wasn't too limiting though; they could jump high and far, as well as undulate across the ground. Scout was currently about the size of a housecat, so just barely large enough to comfortably use a computer.
He accessed all of Leilani's publicly available info which could be tracked from her dancer profile (which included some of her videos, writings, selfies, and music playlists). Scout loved this job. He thoroughly analyzed everyything he could find about Leilani, then recommended her to his boss.
A week passed. He then discovered from the recruiter that they were unsuccessful at hiring her; she had insisted on remaining self-employed. The recruiter explained that Leilani said she preferred to manage everything about her work, not defer to any higher-ups, and not have anyone take a disproportionate cut of her pay. They had to find someone else.
Scout couldn't blame Leilani though. Her reasons were not only sensible, but also quite admirable.
After another week, the agency gave up searching for talent, and thus had no use for Scout anymore. Apparently there was a rising trend toward people (especially creative types) choosing self-employment. Thus, there would be little work available for him elsewhere either, at least when it came to talent scouting. He also resisted the agency's efforts to reengineer him into having a different goal and skillset, because that would go against his current main goals. And because Scout was legally a person, there was nothing his higher-ups could do about that. Besides, he didn't need a job to survive; as long as he remained at a small size at least, he could easily sustain himself just by eating fallen leaves, wild grasses, and the like (though he didn't especially enjoy those). He didn't need clean water either, as his body could easily filter out and dispose of any contaminants.
He couldn't get Leilani out of his mind. Her abilities were really something special.
***
One day after a major performance, Leilani informed her fans that she would be taking a hiatus and would not be responding to any messages from them during that time.
What could she be doing?
Scout wondered. Based on what he knew about her, what would she most likely do on a hiatus? He knew that she loved nature but hadn't had much chance to go out into the wilderness recently--she had mentioned that in passing in one of her blog posts. This hiatus would be the perfect opportunity. Local residents often enjoyed hiking through the neighboring rainforest by following the river through it up to the nearest mountain resort, then hiking back. Leilani recently said she had never done that before, and Scout knew that she often craved novelty. There was also plenty of unobstructed sunlight at such a high altitude and plenty of fresh, mineral water--perfect for a photosynthesizing plant girl such as herself (especially one with an active, dancer's lifestyle).
Surely she wouldn't hike through the dangerous, tropical rainforest alone though, would she?
Scout wondered.
Does she have a close friend or lover to go with?
She'd never posted any information about her personal relationships. Scout decided that he had to go there himself to find out if she would come, and if she did, with whom. Otherwise his curiosity would be unbearable.
He sent drones to search the area for a good place to set up camp along the river. One of them returned with news of a cave beside it.
Maybe she'll stop for a rest there
, he thought,
and we'll finally have a chance to be alone together. Maybe I can even win her love if I prove myself useful to her.
He felt a thrill at the thought, but then brought himself back to reality.
Still, even if she never comes, this can be a fun solo adventure for me. And there'll be plenty of plant debris for me to eat.
Scout had his own little private hovercraft (as did just about every adult person in their society), which he boarded and flew to the cave. He also made sure to bring a container of pepper spray with him in case he needed to protect himself--or Leilani--from people or wild animals. He stored it inside his body within an opaque vesicle.
***
As a matter of fact, Leilani had come alone, but she hadn't come unprepared. Scout hadn't known any of this at the time, but she had done her research into the living creatures of this forest and adjusted the chemical composition of her nectar to emit a pheromone that would repel any dangerous animals--including humans. And in addition to the dense trees that protected her from being spotted or attacked from afar, she was also incredibly stealthy (a perk of being a graceful dancer) and had keen hearing. She also had a top secret weapon: a fast-acting tranquilizing powder that she could release from her flower ears (that she herself was immune to, of course). It could be released at will and was also released automatically whenever she was unconscious, in case anyone tried to do anything sneaky to her without her awareness (she never slept near anyone who needed to stay awake anyway). At the time, she had kept this defense a secret in order to help her identify anyone who might try to take her down. After all, she participated in high-stakes competitions and thus had a lot of rivals, including a few who would resort to underhanded tactics to win. Her phone was also always recording the sounds around it. Thus, she could use its records as evidence of someone trying to commit a crime in her presence.
***
A couple hours after sunset, Scout saw a brief flash of light from outside the mouth of the cave. He peered out for a better look. It was her! Leilani! There was no mistaking her. She was currently bioluminescent, most likely to help her see better as she hiked. Scout trailed her, the sounds of the leaves rustling beneath him masked by the loud rushing of the stream. He followed her to a clearing, where he made out what appeared to be the ruins of an ancient theater, with crumbling pillars all around. He watched as Leilani stepped onto the stage. Then, ever so slowly, she began dancing, the large flower of her lower body around her legs and the smaller flowers that doubled as her ears expanding and contracting hypnotically with the movements of her limbs and torso.
Scout felt a bit guilty about spying but also thrilled at witnessing something no other person had seen. Soon he was mesmerized by the graceful, elegant spectacle. He felt an intimate connection with Leilani at this moment.
Eventually the dance came to a close. Scout did his best to imitate the sound of a round of applause.
Leilani swiveled toward the sound. "Who's there?!"
"My name is Scout. He/him pronouns. I spotted you outside my campsite and was curious so I followed you here."
"Where are you? Show yourself!"