Kurt sat back as the Hazen server took their plates. Across the table, Maya watched open mouth as the pseudo-simian native of the planet casually balanced bowls and plates in its hands that its tail grabbed. He knew it was part of the show, the draw for this cross-species restaurant, but his lunch guest had just arrived on-planet and was still getting her first taste of Society.
"Can I get you anything else right now?" the being asked as he used his tail to top off their waters from the carafe at the table. Kurt smiled, he'd seen it before, but Maya stared with big eyes at the monkey-like server before hurriedly shaking her head.
"No thank you," Kurt agreed, "can you check on us in 5 minutes?" It had taken some time, but he felt he'd established himself in his unique career and could afford to go out more and more. Once that was true, he'd figured out a bunch of the things that made life in Society easier and being clear about his wishes and not assuming anything was key. One night, he'd sat at his table for almost an hour before finally working up the courage to ask a passing waiter for something. Sometimes, it almost seemed like this was a different planet with its own customs.
"Certainly..." The being paused for a moment, looking at something on his eye display that only he could see, then raised its eyebrows in a gesture the two species seemed to have in common, "Mister Kurt Sanderson! Whatever you wish, just call if you change your mind and I will return in approximately 5 minutes." Kurt knew whatever the native had heard through his own translator buds wasn't exactly '5 minutes', but he'd grown to depend on their smart translations and knew the waiter had heard a figure in whatever time units to which he was accustomed.
The Hazen waiter left, plates rock steady through some balancing magic, and Maya shook her head in wonder.
"Do you think they drop those very often?" she asked, taking a sip from her water.
Kurt shook his head. "I've been here maybe half a dozen times, haven't seen it happen yet. I think the whole balancing plates thing is part of their schtick." He looked back at her and smiled, it was good to talk to another human. It had been months since he'd managed an almost 30 seconds conversation with an impatient traveler he'd seen in the bazaar, and this meeting was going much better.
"Are you some kind of celebrity or something?" She asked, arching an eyebrow. Kurt frowned, confused.
"Pardon?"
"Well, it seemed like he acted a little funny when he saw your name on his, whatever they call it." She shrugged. "So either you're a celebrity or you like to dine & dash and I'd really like to know which is which in case I need to tighten my laces." She smiled, and he laughed. Damn, it was great to talk to a human again.
"Ha, no, I'm, uh, I've just had a good run at a local business and I guess the Hazen have their own social media scene or something and last week, someone, uh, shared a video of me at work I guess. I've been getting recognized here and there, but it'll pass." He hoped. The tech who had released the holovid of one of his implantation sessions had been fired, but the damage was done. He was grateful it wasn't anyone he'd met before, he was getting to know more and more of the folks at the Lower Feiden Extraplanetary Fertility Clinic and it had felt pretty rough to find out his privacy had been breached like that, but this species didn't see it as as big of a deal so now they knew, but regardless, the technician had violated other rules related to posting the video so, at least he knew that specific person wouldn't do that again with him.
"What do you do? A stunt? Fall down? Oh shit, did you get hit in the balls? That's gotta be cross-species funny." She laughed, poking fun at him, and he shook his head with a smile.
"Close! Ok, well kinda, but also not exactly. So anyways, tell me more about your trip-" he tried to change the subject, but she cocked her head curiously and interrupted.
"'Kinda but not exactly'? You got a copy? Show me." She held out her hand as if for his tablet and he smiled and shook his head again.
"Nope, sorry, in fact it might not even be out there anymore. They've got a pretty short attention span here." As he said this, a different Hazen, this one a customer, did an almost comical double take at him as it passed, then whispered furiously to its date.
Maya watched that as it unfolded, then looked back at him, one eyebrow now trying to climb right off her forehead. He smiled guiltily and spread out his hands. "Ok, maybe not THAT short, uh, but honest, I don't have a copy. Really, it's not a big deal," he lied. He'd just met his first other human in months and wasn't sure he was ready for her to learn that he'd been recorded getting railed by a colony of space squid.
"I see," she replied, and the post-meal conversation moved on but on a couple occasions he caught her watching him speculatively. Maybe he'd luck out, he thought to himself, but at this point, he figured his best bet was to try and wait it out.
After checking on them, the Hazen waiter brought them both the local coffee analogue. The caffeine-like alkaloids in the local drink were a little more intoxicating than just stimulating, but the combined effect was pleasant. Once again, Kurt expressed mental thanks towards whatever civilizations had come up with the technology to transparently protect restaurant patrons of different species from being serve something poisonous or otherwise harmful, he couldn't imagine being able to go out if he had to bring a test kit of some sort with him.
"This is getting out of hand," a familiar voice spoke from beside him and he looked over to see a large red worm-like being arriving next to their table, his body pulling itself up so he could make eye contact, "now there's two of you!"
Buzzed by the drink, Kurt smiled and stood to welcome the being that had been responsible for getting him into his current career, the one that had finally enabled him to get his life on Feiden started for real. He held out his fist and the new arrival did the same and they bumped in the traditional Society fashion. Kurt always smiled at that, definitely not what the science fiction he'd grown up with had expected out in the galaxy.
"Azarac! Hey, how are you?" He waved him to an empty spot and the table automatically expanded to give the long being the room he needed to snug himself into place, his upper body erect.
"I am well, human Kurt Sanderson, thank you. And also congratulations are in order, it seems? I brought another candidate to the clinic a few weeks ago and they gave me a supplementary bonus for finding you. It seems you've made quite an impression, they never do that!" He bobbed his head in his species laughter.
"Yeah, well, it's good work, thank you for getting me into it. I don't think I would have picked that out of an employment brochure." He chuckled too, and then startled at the sound of a polite cough from his meal companion.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Maya, this is Azarac, we met a few months ago. He got me- uh, we did some business together, he... he got me into my job" he temporized, trying to figure out how to avoid getting into talking about his employment.
