The Study Of (Kate/Noh)
Kate's soulmate is an entomologist.
She tells people this when they ask, because of course they ask.
She doesn’t know, not for certain, since she's never met the person, but she's pretty sure.
Periplaneta americana has been on her wrist since she was born, and she's gotten used to the assumption.
…
Periplaneta americana is often mistakenly called a waterbug. It's not, it's a cockroach, with a complex social structure and a diet that consists of everything. It tends to wind up with humans, prefers moist areas, and has a huge genome.
She's done a lot of science projects on Periplaneta americana. Clearly, this is something important to her soulmate, important enough that this is how she's going to find them. It just seems polite to try and cultivate a shared interest.
Plus, you know, cockroaches are actually pretty interesting.
Ugly, but interesting.
…
There's something about Noh that Kate can't quite put her finger on. It might be something about his eyes, the way that light bounces off of them.
Or maybe it's the way he can fit himself into improbably small spaces?
Maybe it's just the way he can stick to walls.
Like, to be fair, there's a number of people Kate knows who can manage that, and sure, all of them have spider-characteristics or the ability to fly, but not everyone has been bitten by a radioactive spider. Just, you know. An unusually high number of people.
It's probably just an Alien Thing.
Like that time she found Noh crammed into the tiny space under a bunk with a cool damp towel around his neck.
Totally an alien thing.
...
"That's not food," Kate insists, taking the shoe from him.
Noh sulks.
"I mean, right?" Kate asks. What does she know? "Does it taste good, or give you nutrition?"
"I can survive on it."
"But does it taste good?" Kate repeats. "You shouldn't eat shoes unless you want to."
"So what should I eat? What do you like eating?" He leans back, regarding her through half-closed eyes. "Book glue? Paper? Me, I like that glossy photo paper."
"Um, I like sushi? And curry? Pad Thai? Fried chicken, hot dogs, donuts, cake, there's so much food in the world." She looks at him, biting her lip before making a decision. "Do you want to go get some food? Real food, I mean. Not shoes."
"Yeah, okay," Noh says. "I've never had sushi before!"
(he tries to eat the plate the sushi is served on. It's weird, but kind of cute. "Waste not, want not," he says, and Kate remembers that he was a captive of an asshole scientist and it turns sad. She takes him out for dessert, after, and doesn't even flinch when he gets a cup of every flavor of froyo.)
When they make it back to the ship, Kate introduces him to the music of Nicki Minaj and David Bowie. He likes it, but when she pulls up a Motown playlist, that's when he extends his hand to her and asks her to dance.
Noh-Varr, Kate decides, is weird. Weird, but cute.
...
"Hey," Noh says, a few days after their sushi date-not-a-date. "What's the archer's paradox? Is it, you know...important in archery?"
"It's sort of important, yeah? I mean, if you're an archery nerd it's a cool thing but most people probably think it’s nerdy, why do you ask?" She finishes in a rush. It's been years, sure, but she still sometimes reacts like the Girl Who Liked Science Stuff Too Much and got shut down a lot about it. Undermining her interest in things like this is stupid, but it's second nature. "Why do you ask?" She says quickly, as if she can cover up the awkwardness.
"Oh! It's my soul-thing." Noh loosens one of his wrist gauntlet-shackle-cuff things and shows her a very familiar loopy scrawl that boldly proclaims The ARCHER'S PARADOX! "You're the first archer I've ever met. Seemed like it might be your kind of thing."
"The archer's paradox," Kate says, looking up from the words written on Noh's wrist. "It's about the fact that given the structure of a bow, the arrow is pointed slightly to the side of the target and it seemingly doesn't make sense for it to be able to travel in a straight line. There's a lot of cool physics reasons for why it does travel in a straight line but that's..." She trails off, suddenly aware of the fact that Noh is smiling down at her. "What?"
"This means we're soulmates, right?"
"No, I don't..." Kate shakes her head, rubbing at her wrist. "I'm pretty sure my soulmate is an entomologist."
"What's that?"
"It's someone who studies insects."
"And that's what you have? Something about entomology?" Noh's strange eyes glitter in the dim light of the spaceship. "It's not," he continues, hesitantly, "not like, an actual bug? Or a cockroach?"
"Yeah, it's—how did you know that? It's Periplaneta americana which is a species of cockroach. Why, does that—does that mean something to you?"
"You know how I was genetically modified, right?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Well, my genes were spliced with cockroach DNA."
"Sorry. What."
"Periplaneta americana to be exact."
"What."
"So it could be me?"
Kate stares at him, her fingers worrying over the words on her wrist. It does explain a lot. THe diet stuff and the small places stuff.
"I know Terrans aren't used to genetic splicing, so if you—if that's too weird for you--"
He falls silent when Kate puts her hands on either side of his face, peering into his eyes. Compound eyes, they're faceted, that's what catches the light. It should probably be weird, or gross. Kate should definitely not get all teenage-dream swoony over it.
Slowly, very slowly, giving him time to skitter away if he wants, Kate pushes up on her toes and brushes her lips against his.
A chirp sounds from him, rolling from a place in the back of Noh's throat. "Is that a good noise?"
Noh smiles, the tips of his ears turning red. "Yeah. It's a good noise."
"Oh. Okay."
This time, Noh's lips meet hers halfway.