Maze sat on the bed across for James and for almost two hours explained everything to him.

How he had come to Earth to escape the inevitability of his future as King. How his father, the current King, had sent a team to track him down and convince him to return. How the team were unable to start their ships to leave the planet without his help and how he had refused because he couldn’t risk them returning to inform his father, who would then send a ‘specialised’ team to retrieve him by any means necessary.

All of this was nowhere near as shocking to James as what he had to say next. James had known his mother had been abducted by aliens shortly before meeting his father but what he hadn’t known was how the aliens, Maze’s people, had been experimenting on the humans they abducting; transplanting their own DNA in the hopes of creating … something.

Even Maze, as the future King, had no clue as to what they were attempting to create. His father had refused to tell him until ascended to the throne, but Maze refused to accept the title. He wanted no part in ruling a people who would use other races so flippantly, as though the humans were only placed in the galaxy to amuse the Ara’tan.

James had always wondered why his brother Callen looked so different from the rest of them, and now he knew; they all had alien DNA but for whatever reason, Callen was the only one to show the physical signs.


Maze had known who, or what, James was the moment he had seen him in his cell that day. Apparently he had a different smell than other humans, which sounded thoroughly disgusting to James but he supposed he should be grateful Maze had smelled it and the other purples ones hadn’t. Maze had also known that if he didn’t get James out of the prison before they got around to testing him, they would have gotten exactly what they wanted, doomed Maze to be hunted down by the ‘specialised’ team and left James and the others in their cells to rot.

On the one hand, James was glad he finally knew the truth and could make some sort of sense as to why he had been taken all those weeks ago. But on the other hand, that also meant he was partially alien and he had no clue what that meant, if anything, for himself and his future.

After Maze was done explaining everything there was a long, slightly awkward silence in which James suddenly realised just how tired he was. He was surprised that he hadn’t noticed sooner considering everything, but he suddenly felt like he’d ran straight into a brick wall.

Something he had also only noticed as he realised how tired he was … there was only one bed.

It had been so long since the last time he’d slept in the same bed as anyone, and even then he had known the person very well. His ex-girlfriend Alicia who had left him three years ago, had been the last person to share a bed with him. But this alien, Maze, was still basically a complete stranger, and definitely not a girl.

In the end James decided he’d care about it tomorrow, he was way too tired to care where he slept and with whom at that moment. If Maze smothered him in his sleep so be it, at least he’d get some sleep.


He got up from the desk chair and walked over to sit beside Maze on the bed. “So I guess we’re going to have to share the bed,” he tried to sound as casual as possible. “Unless of course you would prefer to sleep on the floor.”

“Why would I prefer to sleep on the floor?” Maze frowned and looked down at the carpet under his feet. “I assume it would not be soft.”

“Not at all,” James agreed. “I just meant, if you’re not comfortable sharing the bed with … me.”

“You were going to say ‘with a man’, weren’t you?” Maze suddenly grinned at him, showing those sharp teeth again. James wondered briefly if he would ever get used to seeing them.

“No, no, I just …” James sighed heavily, there was no use in lying when the damn alien always seemed to know what he was thinking. “Yes, I was. I don’t know about you but I’ve never slept with another man before and … I just thought … forget it.”

Maze met his gaze and stared at him steadily for a moment before answering with a simple; “I have no problem with it.”


“Alright,” James nodded and looked down at the ground, embarrassed, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks.

James made his way around to the other side of the bed and sat down, sighing happily at the softness as he reclined against the back of the sofa bed. It wasn’t as comfortable as his own bed upstairs but it was still far better than the hard, lumpy cot he’d been sleeping on for weeks.

Apparently he wasn’t the only one exhausted by the events of the night, a quiet yawn from the other side of the bed told him Maze was fighting the tired fight as well. He glanced up as a second yawn sounded, intent on telling the alien to stop yawning as it was catching, and froze.

Maze had stripped off the too-tight tee and was on his feet, stretching languidly beside the bed. He had never seen anyone with green skin before and had certainly never seen so much of anyone with green skin. James’ mind reminded him firmly that he should look away, give the alien some privacy, but his eyes refused to obey.

It was oddly fascinating to watch the corded muscles move under the skin of his back as Maze stretched his arms up over his head, yawning again, before sitting back down on the edge of the bed.


“If you continue staring at me I will have to do something about it.”

The sound of Maze’s voice startled James and he snapped his eyes back to his hands in his lap, feeling that damn blush rising again. He didn’t bother to reply to Maze, there was nothing he could say to excuse his actions, so instead he shuffled down underneath the blanket, rolled away from the alien and closed his eyes.

Before falling asleep the night before, James had smiled at the thought that he would be able to wake up the next morning of his own volition and not because someone was crying or screaming or trying to kill him.

Sadly that wasn’t what happened. He grumbled under his breath as he sat up in the bed and glared sleepily at the still-shirtless alien standing at the end of the bed in front of the television. He looked exactly as he had the night before, had he even slept?

“Do you mind?” James groaned, scrubbing at his eyes. “I’m trying to sleep over here.”

“Not at all,” Maze turned his head just far enough to smirk at James and made a show of pointing the remote at the television to turn the volume up.


“Oh for—” James stopped short of swearing and got up to snatch the remote away from him, jabbing the off button as he did so and plunging the room into blissful silence again. He tossed the remote on the table beside the bed and sat back down, running his hands over his hair to try to tame it. "Did you even sleep?”

“For a whole two hours,” Maze actually sounded proud of the fact. When James turned to him with a look of confusion he actually chuckled. Oh god, he was a morning person. “I’m not human, I don’t need much sleep.”

“Yes well I am and I do,” James grumbled. “So if you don’t mind, I’m going to get some more of it.”

“It’s almost six o’clock in the evening,” Maze pointed out. “If there’s anything needed from outside this … basement, I should go soon and get it. It will be better to go out when it’s dark.”

“Do whatever you want,” James mumbled as he lay back down and pulled the blanket up over his head and raised his voice to add; “Just do it quietly!”