"Careless, Lee, careless!" Alyson berated herself as she took the stairs two at a time. She'd spent too much time that morning sitting around in her pajamas, thinking about hunky space captains and thrilling space adventures that she was going to be late for her morning class if she didn't hustle!

Dashing up the staircase and around a corner, Alyson hustled so hard that she hustled someone right off their feet. Bowled into him and they both went a-tumbling down.

When Alyson regained her senses, she saw a handsome grin mere inches from her face. The stranger she'd run into had managed to catch himself so he didn't land on her and he wasn't mad he was handsomely smiling at her.

"oh," she said.

"Where's the fire, pretty lady?"

"fire?" she echoed. Her voice sounded really stupid to her ears. Her cheeks burned. Maybe that's where the fire was. Maybe she was on fire. God, please let her be on fire so she could die of that and not embarrassment.

He laughed but it didn't feel like it was at her. "What's the rush? Don't tell me you were running to find me. I wasn't going anywhere," he joked.

Alyson didn't trust herself to say anything. So, she didn't. She just lay on the ground, gaping like an idiot, with her class notes scattered everywhere, and a handsome guy who definitely thought she was a rude idiot jerk who ran into people and couldn't even hold up a conversation.

The bat gently tilted her chin with one of his hands. "Not much of a talker?"

"Class!" Alyson exclaimed. "I'm late for class!"

Yup. Better to not say anything and be thought an idiot than to open her mouth and confirm it beyond doubt.

"I'll help you up," he said. And suddenly a warm hand was cupping under her back and lifting her to her feet. Then, while she stood awkwardly, the bat boy scooped up her class notes and handed them to her.

"thank you," she murmured. And stood there, still very awkwardly.

"Weren't you late for class?" he prompted.

"Oh!" She took off in a panic and almost fell down the stairs but he caught her arm.

"Careful! If those notes were for your class, you're going to want to go down that hallway." He pointed her in the right direction.

"Thank you," she said. Catch on fire, catch on fire, catch on fire. Why don't I just catch on fire?

"No problem." She was definitely a cutie, Zel thought. He'd been annoyed when someone had knocked him over but hell, he couldn't stay mad at her. If he wasn't already busy, maybe he'd try to convince her to skip class and go out for a coffee. Or maybe something less caffeinated considering how she was tearing around. Ah well. "You gotta get going and so do I but maybe we'll... run into each other again. Name's Zel. See you around."

"Alyson," Alyson said, after he'd already gone. "Aly. Lee."

She stood in the hall until she stopped blushing so warmly. She wound up being ten minutes late to her class.

--

Later, when she was sitting in the commons with her friends Sadie and Sable. Sable was talking about... something. Alyson wasn't listening. She kept thinking about that bat.

Sable noticed how quiet Alyson was being and stopped her story. "Hey, what gives, Lee? You're pretty quiet tonight. Don't you usually want to talk about that space guy?"

"Noooooo," hissed Sadie, and threw a tater tot. She landed it right in Sable's cleavage.

"Yuck! You got tater grease on my boob!" Sable fished it out. Then she wet a napkin with her glass of water and dabbed at her fur.

Sadie sighed. "Well, since Sables brought it up anyway, why are you so quiet tonight, Aly?"

"I ran into a handsome guy today..."

"So instead of paying attention to Sable's story about the bookstore, you've been daydreaming about hot boys? I'm so proud. Well done, Aly, knew you had it in you!"

"No, I literally ran into him! I'm so mortified!"

"HAH!" Sadie laughed.

Alyson retold the incident at Sadie's insistence. Including, at Sadie's insistence, details on how handsome this handsome guy was.

Sable frowned. "That description sounds like Zel."

"Yes! He said his name was Zel," Alyson confirmed. "He was a perfect gentleman!"

"Now, that doesn't sound like him," Sable said.

---

Alyson March and Zel Driscoll owned by me
Art by  kastoluza