The two of them blended rather well into the scenery of this strange new world.  Phaedra had done her homework well.  Anyway, she didn’t particularly consider herself a stranger to Earth--- more like an ex-patriate moving through the semi-familiar sights and sounds of her new home.<br/><br/>The same thing couldn’t be said about her companion.  Everything to him was alien and new--- perhaps because he himself was alien and new, like a new-born babe whose life was a vast field of nothing.  True, he could somehow remember how to speak, how to learn a new language, how to do sums in his head, how to work a woman’s jeans zipper and how to have sex.  Phaedra had proven to him he wasn’t lacking in those areas.<br/><br/>But who he was, what he was, where he was from--- these were all glaring omissions from what his head should contain, but didn’t.<br/><br/>Phaedra had insisted they explore the town.  She had been here once before, during her few years on Earth going through university to get her doctorate in psychotherapy, but she had never been down this particular street.  The red cobbled stone path was too irresistible, and to Phaedra it might as well have a great big arrow pointing down it with a sign saying ‘The Road Less Travelled.’  This was what she loved, especially as these were the sorts of roads they needed to keep to as fugitives from their world.<br/><br/>She stopped and sniffed the air.  “I smell chocolate.”  When it came to chocolate, her nose was like a bloodhound’s.  She guessed it was the quaint little shop past the iron gate from which such succulent scents tugged at her.  “I’m hungry.  Come on,<em>mei agonei</em>." My heart.  "It’s time we feed that bottomless stomach of yours.  I can hear it complaining.”<br/><br/>The man also sniffed.  Not to smell the chocolate, but to express mild disgust.  He was always hungry.  At six-four and two-hundred-ten plus pounds of pure lean muscle, whatever he ate never seemed to be enough.  He supposed it was the consequences of the savage illness that should have killed him but didn’t.  His body was recovering with a vengeance, although some parts of him (not the ones down below, thank the gods) refused to work properly--- like his eyes.  They were so sensitive to light that he had to wear sunglasses during the day, like he was now.<br/><br/>Phaedra grabbed his hand and pulled him through the gate, down the path and into the shop, and he didn’t resist.  The smells of the bakery were too tempting for a man whose last meal three hours ago had been just a snack.<br/><br/>As usual, Kyros felt rather freakish--- a big man with longish dark hair, a masculine, strong-jawed face that might have been considered handsome if not for the scar on his forehead, sunglasses, and tattered jeans and faded shirt (Phaedra insisted these were the fashion among Earth men), he couldn’t help thinking people could see right through him for what he really was--- a man who was mentally ‘broken’, missing memories and all.  So he sat down quietly at one of the tables in the corner and let Phaedra go to the counter to get their food and drink for them.<br/><br/>He watched the way her hips swayed as she walked away and knew a different hunger.  Phaedra was all woman, all soft, generous curves and slender valleys where they should be, with long shapely legs that could wrap around a man with surprising strength.  Her hair was also casually disheveled like his, long dark-brown tresses that curled just past her shoulders, large violet eyes with long lashes provided by nature and a face, while not classically beautiful, that seemed luminous from good-natured humor and enjoyment of life despite their predicament.<br/><br/>As she approached the counter, she noted the employees and other customers warily, having learned to scope out her surroundings from long practice as an illicit visitor to Earth.  An empath, she also learned to shut out all but the most pertinent emotions coming from those around her, or else she knew she would be overwhelmed by the incoming stimuli.<br/><br/>She walked unhuriedly along the counter, noting all the offerings and breathing in the delight of coffee with simple pleasure.  She would wait patiently for an employee to help her with their order.<br/>