His First Heartbreak

Posted on Fri Jul 31st, 2026 @ 4:08am by Lieutenant Mark Valleroy & Corey Valleroy & Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

957 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Valentine's Day
Location: Valleroy quarters
Timeline: Feb. 15th

Henry held Tessa's hand as they walked down the corridor towards Mark's quarters. "Are you sure you want to be here for this?"

"I have to be, Henry. This is my fault and I'm not going to run away from it."

"All right," Henry said, "but if he sounds upset or angry at you, don't take it personally."

They stopped at Mark's door and Henry rang the chime.

"Come in," Mark said when he heard the door chime. When the doors opened and he saw who it was, he said, "Good morning, Tessa, Nurse Taylor. I was just thinking about contacting you." Mark noticed that (a somewhat bleary-eyed) Corey had bolted upright from where he'd been sitting having breakfast, but turned to him and signaled for him to sit back down. "Corey, I think we probably need to talk a bit more about what happened last night, all right?" Corey looked like he'd rather be anywhere else at that moment, but slowly nodded and sat back down.

Tessa gave a tentative smile towards Corey, but looked up at Mark as she and Henry walked in, his hand on her shoulder, "My Lord, we came because I have to apologize for mine own actions yesterday. I may not have been aware of exactly what was going on, but ignorance is not an excuse."mo

"Especially when that ignorance could have been prevented better by my explaining things," Henry said. "I'm sorry too."

Corey glanced at Mark for a moment, before somewhat hesitantly saying, "I'm sorry too. I should have thought it through more, but some of the guys at school wanted to know what dating was like and they were...kinda pushing me to be the one to find out, since I'm the oldest. There aren't really any other girls on board close to my age, and you were always nice to me the couple of times we've interacted before, and I..." He shuffled his feet while looking down, blushing slightly. "I guess I jumped the gun, as Uncle Mark might say. I didn't think you might already be dating someone or that dating might mean the same to you as it does to me, and I didn't check with any grown-ups first to see if what I was planning was a good idea."

"And I suppose I should be apologizing here as well," Mark said. "I kind of suspected Corey was up to something that might be more than just hanging out with friends like he usually does, but didn't check further as to what he had planned. If I had, I might have been in a better position to explain certain things. He's still very much a youth by human standards, but at the same time, he's growing up and is at an age where he's learning more every day about being an adult and what that entails, and sometimes...I forget that."

"I'll admit that 'dating' on Tial is definitely different than it is for humans." Tessa said carefully, "There isn't any dating for those of the Korashe, typically we're..." She felt Henry's hand on her shoulder and glanced up, getting a shake of a head, "It's different, let's leave it at that?" She gave a wry smile, then a thought hit her and one hand came up to cover her mouth as a giggle came out, "Perhaps... Maybe I should send word back for some attendants to be sent out for me?" Her eyes lit with mirth, "Some younger ones, so that you might have someone to practice with?"

Henry pulled her back before Corey's ears perked up any higher. "The Tialan sense of humor aside," he said, quickly, stepping forward, "Corey, understand that no one's upset with you, and you did nothing wrong. Tessa told me about your time together, and I appreciate you being a gentleman about it. It says a lot about who you are, and I think when you do meet the right girl, she's going to be very lucky."

Corey kind of liked the idea of having some girls his own age on board, but at the same time felt his face go a bit warm. "Thank you," he said. "I think that next time I'll make sure to be a bit more careful and check with others," he glanced at Mark for a moment, "so that there are no misunderstandings about what the activity is supposed to be about. And, uh, Tessa? Can we...still be friends? I haven't had the chance yet to show you that program I have about something from Earth called miniature golf."

"I wasn't kidding!" Tessa stamped her foot at Henry, but smiled at Corey despite that. "And absolutely we can be friends! I'd love to learn how to play miniature golf, which I take as being small golf, but I have no idea what golf is, so we're going to have to wing it!" She smiled broadly, "And Henry's right, whoever you finally get together with will be very lucky. You were quite the gentleman at the Amusing Park."

Henry stifled a smile. "Just don't make her too good at it, or she'll start making fun of me when I don't do as well," he said.

"Well, you can come along," Corey said, "since it's supposed to be a friend activity and not some sort of a date or anything like that."

Henry gave him a smile. "Sounds good," he said. He looked at Tessa. "I think we should let them get back to their morning, hm?"

"I suppose we should." Tessa grabbed Henry's hand and smiled at Corey, "Just let us know when and where and we'll be there, all right?"

"Sounds like a...friend activity," Corey said with a smile.

 

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