I Gotta Hold You Somehow

Tyson awoke the next morning in his sleeping bag to find a large orange lizard sitting on his chest, staring him in the face. His breath caught in his throat. He turned his head to the side. Mike and Chris were still asleep, snuggled close together in their sleeping bag.

"Uh... guys?" he asked loudly.

Mike lifted his head and blinked sleepily. "Yeah?

"Is this thing going to bite me?"

Mike looked at the lizard, and laughed. "Don't worry. She's friendly." He held out a hand to the lizard. It - er, she - sniffed his hand, then nuzzled against it like a cat. Mike smiled and petted it. It jumped off of Tyson and layed on the ground next to Mike.

Chris woke up and stretched. He spotted the lizard, and reached over Mike to pet it.

They spent the next few minutes playing with the lizard, and the other few that joined it after realizing that it was safe. They acted like pets - they could fetch and roll over, and they loved to be petted. They came in all different colors; there was a light blue one, a dark green one, a purple one, a yellow one, and the orange one that Tyson had met first. Mike and Chris taught him how to tell the difference between a male and a female - the males had blue eyes, while the females had purple.

When they decided that it was time to head back to the spaceships, the lizards followed them for a while, before disappearing into the trees in one of the forests.

Tyson asked if there were any lizards around where the spaceships were.

"No, the closest ones live about an hour and a half away," Mike replied. "But Chris and I go to visit them sometimes, and you're welcome to come with us when we do."

"Thanks." Tyson smiled.

There was silence for a little while. Eventually, Tyson thought of a something.

"What do you eat here? Is there like, animals and stuff that can be eaten?"

Chris laughed and shook his head. "Nope. The only animals around here are the lizards. There isn't much that's edible around here, really."

"So what do we eat?"

"Nothing. That's one of the weirdest things about this place - you don't need to eat or drink anything. You can if you want - a few of the trees have fruit on them - but it's not necessary."

Tyson sighed. "This place is so weird. I wish I could get home."

"Yeah, me too," Mike said. "But I think that maybe we're here for a reason."

Tyson looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

"I love Chris," Mike said. "I love him more than I even thought it was possible to love someone. But if we'd stayed on Earth, we would have lived almost a hundred years apart. We never would have met, if it wasn't for this place. Maybe you're here for a reason too."

"It's true," Chris added. "If there was a way to get out of this place, I'd definitely go, but I don't regret coming here." He smiled at Mike, and Mike smiled back. Tyson felt a stab of pain as he thought of Nick, and wished that he was in this universe too.

But, now that he had friends here, things looked a little better than they had before.