"I know. That's how I tend to respond to jokes," he answered, sparing a small smile for Nokosi. "It drives my friends up a wall."

Billy closed his eyes as the other man braided his new hair, wondering what the finished product would look like. This was definitely different---there was a reason he kept his hair short.

"Contraceptive tattoos would've been a big step toward solving my world's problem in that area," he commented. "We had a number of mechanical and chemical methods, all with varying effectiveness rates. Here, the solution seems to be an injection. I'm not looking forward to that."