"I heard you got in trouble today. The instructor sent you back with a referral."

As the door slid closed, the sound of soothing music quieted along the small speaker. The man at the counter set down the plates, turning the rinsing water off as he dropped a damp towel along a thin metal railing. Strange eyes turned to focus on the arrival, stern stare cast with thick posture as he waited for a response.

"Yes."

The young one stared down at the floor, tail swiping in an uncomfortable tension. From the counter, the man's stared did not lessen.

"Are you going to tell me why?"

More swiping, like a cat ready to pounce, the tail's tip seemed to fan nervously, but no reply was given.

"Seli, your mother will be returning soon, if you would rather talk to her about it. I understand."

Young eyes of solid hue lifted, nervousness replaced by shame.

"I got in an argument. There was yelling." Seli spoke, posture straightening with determination, as her tail slowly wound about thin legs and feet.

"What about?"

"We were learning about humans, and I told them about you. Then the others told me I was a liar, and the instructor told me I was wrong."

She seemed to puff air from her nose, as her stare intensified.

"I got really angry. They were definitely wrong."

The man slowly walked around the counter to crouch on one knee before her, taking a thumb to carefully wipe away a spot of dirt on Seli's thinly furred cheek.

"Wrong about what, little one?"

"They said that your species is dangerous and damaged." Her eyes seemed to widen in rage as her songlike voice puffed further, continuing. "That humans feel fear to extremes other races don't understand. They can't be right, because you've never been scared."

"Ah..." The man let his hand fall to his knee, as she continued.

"They say that for humans, fear is different than in other species. I learned so in academy- but they're wrong! You've never been scared of anything!"

Her huffing settled, chest rising and falling with the effort of singing out with such intensity. The man smiled.

"That's not true. I've been scared plenty of times."

Seli's tail uncurled with astonishment.

"But I've never seen you frightened. You always seem... calm. Mother always calls you her rock when you're away at work. Says you can handle anything."

"She does?"

Seli nodded fiercely in answer. The man smiled until his teeth showed, white offset in the glow of the warm light of the kitchen's orb above their heads.

"Well... you know, just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. I feel fear, probably worse than most- just like they said."

Seli's lungs seemed to fill, as a look of defiance took over her features.

"But I've never seen you scared- Not once!"

Her tailed began whipping back and forth in an uncontrolled torrent of motion behind her.

"Even that time when our flight to orbit almost went down, and everyone was screaming- I remember you were staring straight at mother and I, smiling."

Slowly, the man reached out and caught her tail with a light touch, pressing it into Seli's hands. A gesture of calm.

"Seli... I was scared then. Probably worse than I've ever been scared. For you, for your mother, for myself."

"But you weren't like what the instructor told everyone humans were like. The teacher told everyone that humans are volatile, and unpredictable."

"That's... Well, that's probably true."

"But you're not like that!"

Carefully, the man rose back from his knees, standing again as he let his hand flow through Seli's thin main in a quick ruffle behind her ears.

"Did your mother ever tell you the story on how the two of us met?"

"Yes, during the war."

She followed him over to the counter, taking a seat along the thin stool as the man returned to the sink, once again picking up the cloth.

"Mother said during the war she got hurt when the planet's battle touched down on the surface, and you carried her out of the city on your back."

"Did she tell you anything else?"

"She said you were the bravest being she had ever seen."

The man smiled, faint bit of red coming to his cheeks.

"Ah, of course she'd say that." He paused, smile still faintly carried on his cheeks. "But there, Brave. There it is."

"What? You're brave! You're fearless! Mother said you ran through gunfire and bombings with someone you had never met before weighing you down!"

"I did, and I think if I found myself back there in that terrible place, I hope I would be able do it again... but that word: "Brave."

He scrubbed at a glass plate with the cloth, circular motion quietly passing along the surface.

"There's a trick to that word. Especially for my kind."

He set the plate on the counter beside two others, before he reached for several glasses to place at their side.

"When I was younger, I felt selfish fear. Fear of injury, fear of misfortune or harm to myself."

A thick hand reached out, scars faded but visible along his fingers and skin as he poured water into each of the cups.

"In those days, I think I might have been very much like what you learned. Much like what they said. Fear controlled my actions, and perhaps even now- it still does."

He set the flask down, back beside the sink once more.

"But when I met your mother, I felt a different kind of fear. A type of fear that made me more than I could ever have been without. Something more than selfish terror and panic."

The man's face, calm and collected, seemed to focus on something distant and away. His hands rested flat along the counter's edge, as his eyes stared far beyond.

"What was it?"

Seli asked quietly, fingers curling around her glass of water.

"It was the fear that if I didn't act, something beautiful in this world would be lost forever. The undeniable terror of loosing something that shouldn't be lost, that reached deep into my bones until my breath was ragged and my mind was empty but for the darkest black of the void."

His face grew cold, and Teli saw it there, as his scarred hands curled to fists. A fierce defiance against everything and everyone: A volatile and unpredictable tempest of emotion held back behind strange eyes.

"I once read a book, a long time ago. In it, there was a question asked and answered on the concept of bravery. Just one example of many for a race like my own, but one that stuck in my mind nonetheless."

He turned to her, hands still flat on the counter- eyes more serious than they had ever been before in her memory.

"'The question was a simple one: Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"

Teni stared back, pure eyes wide as the room's silence grew. Even under the warm glow of the light above, she could feel the draft of deep current pulling along beneath his words. She knew she should answer, but instead she was frozen- her hands glued to the glass, her tail still as ice.

"The answer is yes, little one."

His smile broke through the silence, as his hand reached out to slide along her hair mane again before pulling Teni deeper into an embrace.

"So far as I know, that is the only time we can be brave."