A/N: How this fic came about needs a bit of an explanation. I think we all know the scene where Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes are having this 'moment' that we all dubbed 'the eyesex'. I saw some gifs of it on my Tumblr dash and onesimus (read all her fics!) had commented on it. I saw a challenge and have since tried to write it. This is the (partially?) finished product.

Do leave me reviews and commentary, let me know what you think, but keep in mind that none of this is meant to be serious: it's all just a bit of a lark.

The words 'alternate universe' are taken quite literally in this fic. This is a big fat hands up. If you decide to read this, there be a bit of scifi/fantasy ahead.

I am by NO means a writer of the genre, so bear with me and tell me everything you know that I can use to better this fic!

kouw. tumblr post/48284973300/ just-came-back-from-my-meeting-what-even-is-it

Prologue

She's been planetside for a few years now. Her mission: to observe the people and document their behavior. So far, no-one has noticed she's not from 'here'. Her cover had been well researched, her credentials impeccable. So far they have made fun of her accent, but have not guessed she is not a 'human' like they are.

Work as a housemaid is hard and the days are long, but there is a camaraderie she enjoys and she finds that she is respected and well-liked. Her place at the table is across from Anna. Anna lives in a cottage with her husband instead of sharing a cramped attic room with another maid. People are not sure how to react to it, say the War is to blame for the great changes that are taking place.

The War was one of a primitive people, the use of machinery and bodies lacked the purity of warfare as she has always known it. Of course disease spread like wildfire, killing more men, women and children than the War did in the end.

While warfare on this planet is limited and crude, she finds that other things have evolved in a much higher tempo. For instance marriage is highly valued and the process of falling in love and subsequently making love romanticized, she has learned that children are not always conceived through sexual relations, like her own people used to procreate before the Revolution.

This information has proven to be both interesting and unlike anything she has encountered on the missions she had been on through the years. Having been there for this exceptional occurrence is in her file and in the end secured her promotion and extended stay on the planet.

Part 1

She has heard it a fair few times now: "Stop looking at me like that!". Anna to her Mr Bates and it is paired with smiles and blushes and more often than not a quick cuddle. Lily doesn't quite understand, but it's something more than just something people in love do and say. There is something about that sentence:

"Stop looking at me like that."

Agreed: there are few people who look at each other the way this pair does, but there are some of them under the roof. She wants to know what it is, but she cannot ask. She has told Mrs Hughes she had been given the world famous talk on how to avoid getting into 'trouble'. Not that it was true. When Mrs Hughes had asked her about it, she had gone to her room and had sent an alarm up to the ship and they had beamed down some research.

Human reproduction, or procreation, is basically the same as it used to be in her own species. She herself has been conceived in a petri dish, which is a lot cleaner than the way of the people here, though she must admit it seems rather fun to do it their way. To feel a closeness she has never encountered and a passion that is foreign to her.

There had been a note in her files that said something about telekinesis, about brainwaves and about 'a profoundness of feeling', but it had not been worked out. The previous group of scientists who settled here, had not come across it and like Lily, had only heard of it, vaguely.

After three years, Lily is still no closer to understanding it.

But that would soon change

Part 2

"Are you going to the fair, Lily?" Ivy asks. She is excited, it shows in the roundness of her cheeks that only shows when she smiles widely.

"I don't know if Mrs Hughes is allowing us all to go." She has her arms full of sheets and blankets that need airing. She has been to the fair before, doesn't really see the attraction. There are too many people in too small a space and everyone gets drunk and rowdy. She doesn't care for the games - sees they are all set up and her basic training allows her to win every single one without even trying.

"It will be grand!" Ivy says with gusto. "There will be pop and maybe I'll try to win something!"

"I am sure you will have a very amusing time." She wants to get on, doesn't want to get on Mrs Hughes' bad side. She has only had the extreme displeasure of a tongue lashing once and it's been enough to keep her nose clean for the rest of her life.

"Oh come on, Lily, come with us, it will be such fun! We're only young once, you know." Ivy has put her hand on Lily's wrist and the feeling from skin to skin is something she still isn't used to, a jolt of something rushes through her.

"Alright, I'll ask."

"Good!" Ivy returns to the kitchen, calling out to Daisy that Lily is coming too and that it will all be great and that she has a bit of money to spend and that she is going to wear her Sunday dress.

She passes the boys in the hall, both Jimmy and Alfred are discussing if Mr Carson will be persuaded by Mrs Hughes and she cannot help but shake her head a little. Of course the man will be giving them permission to go to the fair, he is besotted with Mrs Hughes. She could ask Mr Carson to walk barefoot over a pile of hot coal and he'd do it.

She is alone when she hangs out the sheets and comforters, she will miss her hair being blown across her face, the gentle tickling of sunshine on her cheeks, a solidness under her feet when she has to go back to the ship. When she is outside, she feels like she could stay here forever. It's a direct result of being outside that had gotten her the reprimand from Mrs Hughes. She had dawdled the first time she had encountered rain.

Rain was a completely new experience. Cold droplets of water falling from the sky onto your body - something she had reported extensively about. The feeling was not altogether pleasurable, it had been rather cold after about ten minutes. When she returned to the Servants' Hall, Mrs Hughes had sent her upstairs to change and had called her into her parlour. Told her she was to come in immediately when it started chucking it down and take the washing with her.

She can still feel her blush whenever she thinks about it.

Part 3

She always looks forward to the meals. They are something completely different from what she gets when she is aboard ship. The thought of the almost tasteless chunks of protein (a white, gummy substance), vitamins and minerals (three coloured pills a day) and carbs (a thick, slimy porridge) make her shudder now. She adores the taste and texture of the slices of bread, the smell of cooking apples as they simmer, the feeling of contentment when she has filled her stomach. Most of the time she devotes her attention to what she eats, sometimes she exchanges a few words with Anna, but there is something in the air today that makes her look up from her plate.

There is something hovering in the air. She thinks it might be what Mrs Hughes calls 'an atmosphere'.

Edna is talking about Mr Branson taking them to the fair in the car and Mrs Hughes calls her out on it. Her voice oozes authority when she addresses the girl.

"There is no need for impertinence Edna, thank you."

Mr Branson looks uneasy. She has never seen him before at the table downstairs and she can see he is ill at ease. "I am happy to drive them." He looks at Mr Carson. "But who will stay here?"

Mr Carson answers: "I will."

"You don't want to come to the fair?" Alfred has hardly swallowed his food when he speaks. He wants to make Mr Carson proud and is overeager at times. Very unlike Edna, who doesn't want to please anyone but herself.

"I'd sooner chew broken glass."

The boys return to their food, everyone does, but Lily sees it happen.

A sideways glancing smile from Mrs Hughes that gets caught by Mr Carson and is returned. She can almost touch what is between them in that moment. It's less than ten seconds but she feels like she is intruding, as if she is watching the coupling she is so curious about, but won't ever see.

Instead of kissing and presumably naked flesh, there is this.

A web that is woven between them and no-one seems to notice. They are all chatting about the fair, about going out and playing games and participating in the tug-o'-war (she has no idea what that is, so she will have to come along). A thread is now around the pair of them that cannot be broken and there is a glowing she has never seen on anyone before erupting from Mrs Hughes.

When the pair look away again, a sensation lingers in the air around them and Lily can't hardly breathe.