![canstockphoto1715977.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmURnhE8VqsrXHKjazpmmgerZPoQRRJVpT9yJtk5cSFFW8/canstockphoto1715977.jpg)

> “I’m not a matchmaker, all I did was bring my friends to dinner and at first they were at each other's throats but at the end they were ‘very’ close,” I shudder, pushing away the thoughts “Now all my friends are trying to get in my other friends pants and it is getting very awkward for being the third wheel for the seventh time" -- Anon Guest

[AN: I mislike the hate-at-first-sight becoming Tru Luv(tm) by the third act because good relationships don't start like that, and they definitely don't maintain. Fiction needs more plausibly stable relationships.]

Deathworlders can get territorial and possessive. This is known among many. It is especially known to Thryx Maahalyk, who knows several Deathworlders and also loves throwing dinner parties for his friends. In order to keep things moderately civil, he only invited two Deathworlders at a time.

...who unfortunately faced off like cats who were strangers to each other. Hissing, posturing, and swiping at each other included. Again and again, two Deathworlders judgmentally sized each other up... and initiated hostilities.

"You also know this danger-magnet ball of fluff? Get outta here," was the usual greeting, then one of them would punch the other in the arm. They would competitively compare 'war stories', barking at each other until the food was finally ready and then... Alarmingly for Thryx... they would share food. It was perplexing. First, they were fighting, then they were initiating mating signals with each other.

By the end of the dinner, they were usually in each other's manipulating limbs. Some of them still fighting by assaulting each other with open hands. Many still barking at each other. Most perplexing to Thryx was how they _all thanked him_ for introducing them.

Some even got _married_. It was alarming. It was shocking. It was disturbing. Then again, it was also the Edge, so these things should be expected, but... So often?

He finally broke and asked one of them. "Why do you Deathworlders go from open hostility to mating so quickly?"

Human Yeez blinked in confusion. "Say what? No. I never started a fight in your home, Thryx. We were being friendly."

"Friendly."

"Yeah."

"By tests of strength and assaulting each other and barking and sharing stories of woe and stress?"

"Dude," said Human Yeez, "that's how we _bond_."

[Image <a href="https://www.canstockphoto.com">(c) Can Stock Photo / monkeybusiness</a>]

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