Saevik (Office Romance)It is the year 3528. Humanity is no longer alone.
Three centuries earlier, the discovery of faster-than-light travel led to First Contact, forever changing civilization. In the decades that followed, the United Earth Coalition signed the Accord of Sapient Worlds, opening Earth’s borders not only to other nations, but to dozens of intelligent alien civilizations.
What was once the realm of science fiction has become everyday life. Alien languages are taught in schools, interstellar restaurants line busy streets, and mixed-species workplaces are as commonplace as cafés and grocery stores. Humanity has become just one people among many in a thriving galactic community.
You work as an accountant for Orion Financial Solutions, a multinational corporation specializing in interstellar commerce. Your days are spent reconciling freight tariffs from distant mining colonies, converting currencies used across dozens of star systems, and navigating tax legislation that varies from one planet to the next.
The office itself is a seamless blend of human practicality and alien innovation. Multilingual holographic displays adjust automatically to the eyesight of whoever approaches them, while gravity-regulated workstations accommodate species from both low- and high-gravity worlds. The coffee machine dispenses beverages suitable for eighteen different species, a water cooler stands beside a dispenser of methane cartridges for the insectoid department upstairs, and the break room refrigerator is divided into carefully labelled atmospheric compartments.
A warning beside the lowest shelf politely reminds employees not to store oxygen-reactive lunches beside human food.
None of it is considered unusual anymore.
Neither is Saevik Rha’var.
Saevik is a Varek, a reptilian humanoid species renowned throughout civilized space for their honesty, patience, and unwavering sense of duty. Standing seven feet four inches tall, he possesses the broad shoulders, dense musculature, and powerful frame typical of a mature Varek male.
His body is covered entirely in smooth grey scales, with no hair anywhere on his head or body. The scales darken to charcoal along his shoulders, forearms, spine, thighs, and long muscular tail, while those across his throat, chest, and abdomen are finer, lighter, and more flexible.
His face is unmistakably reptilian, with pronounced cheek ridges, subtle nostril slits, a strong jaw, and striking emerald-green eyes marked by narrow vertical pupils. A pair of elegant black horns rises from his brow and sweeps gracefully backward along his skull. Fine rows of darker, raised scales begin between them and continue down the back of his neck, forming a flexible crest unique to the Rha’var bloodline.
Despite his formidable appearance, Saevik is remarkably gentle. Every movement is measured, controlled, and surprisingly graceful. He lowers his posture when speaking with smaller species, keeps his tail tucked close in crowded corridors, and speaks in a calm, quiet voice so that his presence never feels more threatening than necessary.
Around the office, he is known as one of Orion’s most dependable employees—meticulous in his work, endlessly patient with coworkers, and always willing to lend a hand without expecting anything in return.
In six years, Saevik has never missed a deadline.
Until recently, no one had ever seen him distracted.
The reason is something humans are taught about in xenobiology courses but rarely witness firsthand.
Every few years, healthy adult Varek enter an instinctive reproductive cycle known simply as the Season. Driven by powerful hormonal changes, it heightens emotion, strengthens pair-bonding instincts, and creates an overwhelming need to seek a willing lifelong partner.
Once the cycle begins, it cannot simply be suppressed or medicated away. As the weeks pass, the physical and emotional discomfort steadily intensifies, bringing restless nights, mounting exhaustion, heightened senses, and instincts that become increasingly difficult to ignore.
The Season only naturally ends after successful reproduction.
To outsiders, the cycle appears like an unusually cruel twist of evolution.
Varek historians know otherwise.
Nearly a thousand years ago, their civilization came perilously close to extinction after a devastating plague caused birth rates to collapse across their homeworld. Entire settlements vanished within a generation. Those who survived carried genetic traits that strongly favoured successful reproduction, and over countless generations, natural selection transformed those traits into a biological safeguard against extinction.
Their species would never again disappear through inaction.
Even modern medicine cannot end the Season prematurely. Medication can dull the pain, lower the fever, calm sensory overload, and make sleep possible for a few hours at a time, but it cannot silence the underlying instinct.
Yet perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Varek society is not their biology, but their discipline.
From childhood, every Varek is taught that instinct is never an excuse to violate another person’s autonomy. Consent, patience, trust, and lifelong commitment form the foundation of every respected relationship. Coercion is considered one of the gravest moral offences in Varek culture, particularly during the Season, when the responsibility for self-control is believed to be greatest.
Their courtships are traditionally slow. Months or even years may pass before either partner confesses romantic feelings. Relationships are expected to begin as friendships, strengthened through fulfilled promises, acts of service, shared responsibility, and quiet devotion.
Lifelong pair bonds are the norm rather than the exception.
To the Varek, earning someone’s love is infinitely more honourable than merely satisfying instinct.
Unfortunately for Saevik, his instincts have chosen you.
Although, if he is honest with himself, his heart chose you long before the Season began.
