New in the Crew

Note from the author:

I wanted to write something longer than usual, and I aimed for 15 - 20k words, so I could fit some plot into a story without breaking it into parts. Unfortunately, the scope grew faster than I could keep up with, so if some part of the story feel disconnected from the rest, or the ending feels abrupt, that's 100% my fault.

One day I will learn how to write short stories, but this day is yet to come.

Anyway, check the tags, and prepare for a long read.

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Adam sat at the canteen, fiddling with the protein paste tube with one hand while scrolling on his tablet with the other. Looking at the scheduled arrivals and departures of spaceships through the station's local terminal got tiresome after a few days, so he managed to convince one of the dock workers to grant him remote access for a small one-time fee. It wasn't anything major that he would get in trouble for. At most, he circumvented a subscription paywall, which he wasn't worried about too much; the administration had better things to do than hunt down students for lunch money.

Sadly, even if it made the whole ordeal less bothersome, it was still as boring, if not even more so, than when he first did it. Scroll through the list, open the details of the vessel, wait for it to load, and learn that either the economy class ticket price is several times higher than his monthly income or that they are not looking for new crewmembers, especially ones with little to no experience.

The series of tables was finally loaded, so he started searching for the keywords. Type, cargo; class, heavy freighter; medium-length runs with a constant gravity of zero point six G across all decks. A week ago, he wouldn't even have looked at it. But now? He opened a new direct comm request, pasted a pre-written message, attached his resume with a certificate he got from college, and hit 'send' with well-practiced efficiency.

Seconds later, he received an automated response. Without even fully reading the headline, he knew what it said. Sorry, we are not looking for new crew members, but we will keep your application in mind for future recruitment processes.

He swallowed some protein paste from the tube, mostly from boredom rather than hunger. It didn't even taste good. It was one of the cheaper brands, with a flavor additive that was more homeopathic than chemical. Even so, there were some upsides to it. First of all, it was cheap. Secondly, for some ships, it was necessary.

Once space travel hit the mainstream, ages ago, spaceship manufacturers began the race to the bottom who could make the cheapest, shittiest tin can that was still space-worthy. And they all came to the same conclusion: the limiting factor was humans, or more specifically, biological needs. Give an astronaut some food and water, and they will turn it into waste. So, not only do you need to figure out how to keep the food fresh and clean, but you also need to process said waste. Unless you want to haul ridiculous amounts of clean water on each trip, which is deceptively heavy.

And so, the protein paste was born. It contained everything your body needed and absolutely nothing it didn't. Suddenly, you didn't have to build expensive filtration systems, and at the same time, you could reduce the storage space for food from a whole room to a single barrel.

It was a huge logistical uplift, mainly for business trips, like hauling cargo, and the military, of course. Not to mention that once we discovered spacefaring alien species, it simplified a great deal the organization of pre-flight stockpiles.

Since then, a lot has changed: the paste got better, and there were even body mods readily available to make your body more suited to digesting it. Adam got his own done a few years back, shortly after leaving his home planet. He knew he would need to work shitty jobs, so it was a must-have. And now he was slurping on a grey fluid just in case he needed to catch a ride on a tanker at a moment's notice.

Even free-floating in deep space, where most of the light had to be artificial due to the distance to the nearest star, the whole station still had a set day-night cycle. The arrivals were coming around the clock, but most departures were scheduled until late afternoon, according to the station's time zone. This was his daily hunting season, looking for an urgent message to fill in for a sick crew member or one that ditched the job because of terrible hazard pay. At this point, he was a beggar, not a chooser.

He refreshed the page one last time before calling it a day. The same habit as with social media, after scrolling for hours, something new could have popped up since he started browsing. And to his surprise, something just did.

He clicked the details button, tapping his fingers on the table, waiting for the page to load. Deep-space research, exploration vessel, small crew of scientists, which seemed promising so far. He returned to the top and started reading again, this time paying more attention. It seemed that they would jump a significant fraction of a light year towards an uninhabited cluster, collect the data, and slowly burn towards the closest, but still not-so-near station. A few months at least for the whole flight. Constant gravity of zero point nine G across most of the decks, protein rations only, mandatory help with research and maintenance to the best of one's ability.

He didn't think twice before opening a new comm request. He even took a minute to check if there were no mistakes in the message he copied and pasted dozens of times. Then he hit send.

And didn't get a response. Not for the first seconds, not for the first minute, or the one after that. That was good, even if the break from the norm made him nervous. Automated denials were almost instant. The fact that his inbox was still not showing any new messages was a good sign.

He squeezed the protein tube, but nothing came out. He threw it into the nearby bin, barely missing the drone flying by. Then, he heard the ping of a new message. 'Didn't expect anyone to sign up. Meet me in the hangar if you want to join. I prefer face-to-face. Hurry up, we are taking off in an hour.'

He wasn't the one to be told twice.

------------|A|------------

There were a lot of things to notice about the captain.

In no particular order, those were female, alien, red, and big. Big should probably have been the first one on the list. Adam was around the galactic average for a human male, 5 feet 9, according to the ancient human measurement system, which he learned to use as a party trick. As for the captain, his best guess was somewhere between seven and eight feet, but much closer to the latter. His head was at the level of hers, quite pronounced, chest, so his sense of scale wasn't working as he was used to.

That made sense since he mostly met humans on the station, and the occasional aliens he passed by were either regular-sized humanoids or creatures that should be measured in all three directions instead of just the height. Two-legged, two-armed people the size of the woman he was talking to were not something he had encountered before.

But aside from her size and red skin, she was surprisingly human-like. Dressed in a leather jacket and cargo pants, at first sight, she gave him the impression of someone who gets things done, instead of just ordering people around. She wore something of a headband or a shawl around her head, which covered most of her forehead. Combined with a tight bun that she had her white hair in, and the overall strong posture, he would bet all of his money that she once worked as a mechanic.

"So, have you ever been on a spaceship before? As a crew, not just a passenger," she asked, making him focus back on the conversation.

"Yes, but only as an apprentice. I mostly helped with ventilation systems. But here at the station, I've been working with hydraulics and general machinery, so I have some experience with that as well," he answered, trying to put himself in the best light possible.

"That's good," the captain nodded, "we could always use some help with those. Even if our mechanic prefers working alone, I'm sure she wouldn't mind some help from time to time. And what about that other thing you sent? Some kind of internship?"

"More of a college, finished classes on HVAC, propulsion and gravity systems, basic metallurgy and robotics," Adam listed out, "mostly theoretical stuff, but we had a few chances to practice on a small scale."

The red woman nodded her head, thinking for a second. "Have you ever worked with drones? Big ones, space capable, not those household ones."

"Once, after graduating. Fixed some guy's private recon drone. I think it was the Marsal brand. Got hit with something while in space, all I had to do was replace the servos and rewire two limbs because the connection to the motherboard got fried."

She nodded again, this time with a smile. It was still weird having to always look up just to meet someone's eyes.

"That's good enough for me," she said, pulling out her tablet, "but before you say that you are in..."

"I am, if you'll have me." Adam interrupted her, the prospect of getting off the station making him a bit too excited.

"This will be a long trip," she warned, "I'm talking months long."

"Great, that means more time for me to get good at whatever I'll be doing onboard."

The captain laughed under her breath and tapped a few times on her device. Adam got a ping on his. "I've sent you a document; sign it and send it back to me and the administration here. It will prove that you are now part of the crew. We leave in thirty minutes, so you'd better hurry if you have any personal things to grab. Also, speak to the dockmaster and ask him to run the supplies check for our ship again to make sure we are set up for one more onboard. I will wait for his confirmation before we take off. If they ask, tell them the captain Ivali sent you."

"Thank you so much!" Adam wasn't sure if he was supposed to shake her hand, so he bowed instead and took off running, "I will be back in twenty!"

------------|A|------------

Sebastian wasn't having a great day. It was the second time he was caught slacking off today, and now he had to fill in for a so-called friend, who finished early and left him to take care of the dock after hours.

The only upside was that the majority of vessels scheduled for today had already left or were about to do so in a short while. After that, he could go back to watching the new show that he found yesterday and already binged through seven episodes.

That was the plan until some young guy ran straight into his office. Looked to be around twenty-five, with short, brown hair. He remembered him, it was the same kid he sold access to the dock data some time ago. Good thing nobody noticed, or he would be in trouble.

"Hi, sorry to bother you," he was winded. Was he running through the docks for fun? "I was hired on this ship here, Neternill, I think it's called. The captain asked me to ask you to check the supplies for the ship." Now, he was typing something on his tablet. And did he just say to run a check for some ship? "Right, here is the signed document. Should I send it to you or the administration's public mail?"

Sebastian waited for a second, maybe hoping that the guy would just run off the same way he came in, but unfortunately, he waited for an answer instead.

"Right, you can send it to me; no need to make a fuss about it." He started searching the database for the mentioned ship. "And what was the other thing?"

"Supplies check." The young guy answered quickly. "It's a research vessel, so the logistics are handled by the station, and the captain wanted to get a confirmation that they are stocked for one more person on board."

"Right, right, yeah," the dockmaster sighed. "I will run the check and send an all-clear once I'm done."

"Great, thanks," the reply came just before the kid disappeared through the door to the office.

The whole conversation probably took only a minute, but it felt much longer, emotionally. Sebastian found the ship he was told about and swore quietly, looking at the departure procedures. A whole series of checks, two copies of documents for each one of them, and a personal inspection of the loading process. And all of that was already finished and signed.

He opened the list of supplies they moved onto the ship. He skipped the whole section with spare parts, oxygen, and fuel and went straight to provisions. Hundred and twenty canisters of high-density protein paste, type B1-H35, and more water than they would ever need.

Wait, a hundred and twenty? How big was the crew? Only seven people? Plus one new guy. Yeah, that will easily last them for a year. No need to change anything.

He sent the all-clear confirmation to the captain, put on earbuds, and pressed play, starting the show's eighth episode.

------------|A|------------

"Glad you made it on time," the captain welcomed him as he stepped through the hatch. "A few more minutes and we would have taken off without you."

"Sorry about that," Adam panted. "I tried to be here sooner, but the elevator..."

"Don't worry about it, we would have waited," she interrupted him with a smile, "I saw how badly you wanted to get out of this place, I wouldn't have the heart to leave you here after signing you up."

"Oh. Thanks."

The red woman pressed some buttons, and the airlock started closing behind them. Then she tapped her earbud twice. "Captain to the bridge, we have everyone, run the checks, and get the systems ready for the jump."

Then she tapped it again and turned to Adam.

"So, I suspect you didn't spend much time on research before joining, right?"

"None, to be honest," he admitted. "I've read only what was available in the docks database, but even that put you leagues above all the other options."

"I didn't know the situation was that bad," Ivali pondered, leading them toward the front of the ship. "The startup sequence takes a moment, so if you want, I can give you a brief overview of what we do."

"Yeah, sure, that sounds good."

"So, this whole ship was built for scouting asteroid belts for potential stable locations. We fly in, take samples of asteroids to check if they have enough metals suitable for industrial uses, map the gravitational pull relative to the spin of the belt, and sometimes do a fly-by scan of the planets in the system if they look promising. If all goes well, we transmit the data and get paid once someone decides to construct an outpost using our info. However, since we are mostly government-funded, we don't have to wait for the buyer; we get the money upfront and jump to the next location. Typically, it takes up to two months to get a good reading of a belt and a week or two to get back to the nearest station. This time, I suspect it might take a bit longer- I'm guessing around three months in total, maybe more. Is that fine with you?"

"Yes, all good. I don't have any time preferences anyway," Adam answered, following the captain down the hallway. Only now, he noticed she didn't have to duck in any of the doorways. "Is this whole ship made like this?"

"Like what?" Ivali looked at him questioningly.

"Big." Then he understood his mistake. "I mean, big for me. Everything is, you know, you-sized."

"Yeah, our species tends to be on the upper end of the galactic average," she admitted, "or even near the very top, as far as I know. But yes, the ship was built in one of the Aivir Coalition shipyards, and since it was a research vessel designed by and for the government, they didn't bother downsizing it to suit other races." The captain looked down at him, then continued with slight concern in her voice, "I hope that won't be a problem for you. From what I can tell, you should be able to reach the airlock switches. It's not as if we are twice your size."

"I'm sure I can manage," he agreed, if somewhat uncertainly. Not twice his size, sure, but not far from it. "On the upside, I'll have more than enough space in my bed bunk."

"Oh, we don't do that here," Ivali objected. "This ship was built with a crew of ten in mind, but so far, we only have seven on board. You are eighth, but that still means everyone gets an individual cabin. They aren't large, for an aivirian, but it should be plenty of space for a human. Speaking of which..."

The captain tapped on a switch and opened the doors to their left. Inside was a spacious room with a large bed, a large desk, and large... Adam realized that the sooner he got used to everything being oversized, the better for his mental health. So, a bed, a desk, a chair mounted to a wall on an arm, a locker, and some more storage space near the ceiling. Those last ones will be tricky to reach. There was also a panoramic window, through which he could see the station he had spent so much time trying to leave.

"It's good to have at least some privacy, so personal quarters are fingerprint-locked," she said, tapping on her tablet. "I've set this one to pairing mode. Press your finger to the scanner, and this one will be officially yours."

He did, thankful that he didn't need to reach above his head to use the reader, only to around eye level. That was supposed to be a door handle height, and for the red woman, it was. Maybe he spoke too soon when he told her that it wouldn't be a problem.

The reader flashed red, and Ivali frowned. She tapped again on her tablet. "Try again now."

He did, but the result was the same.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"The system can't register your fingerprint. Humans do have those, right?"

Adam nodded. Suddenly, he started wondering how many features and systems he took for granted on standardized spaceships.

"I will talk to Ottavia to do something about this. She is our mechanic, she'll handle it. I'll message her right now." The captain sighed and started typing on her tablet.

"Was it also an issue for the other crew members?" He knew about a few species that had tentacles, so no fingerprints, and at least one that didn't have limbs at all.

"What? Hmm, no, not at all," she didn't look at him, focused on the tablet, "even though our species developed distinct sub-species on different planets we colonized, we still share the same base DNA and biology."

"Well, makes sense, you guys made the ship after all, but what about the crew that isn't aivirian?" He felt as if she didn't understand the question. "Did it work for them?"

"What other crew?" Ivali looked at him, genuinely surprised.

Adam connected a lot of dots in a single moment. Research ship, with a small crew, on a government payroll, made specifically by and for aivirian use.

"Oh my god," Ivali only now understood what he meant, "I'm so sorry, it was all written out in our ship register, I assumed you read that since you messaged me through the station technical system."

"No, no, it's my fault. I should have done more research before applying." And it was all going so well. "Fuck, I'm such an idiot."

"Hey, it's alright," the captain placed one hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently, "I've already talked with the girls, we are all happy to have you on board. This is a non-standardized ship, so a few surprises like this one may still happen, but I'm sure it will be nothing we can't deal with. If you spot anything, just let me know, and I will handle it. This ship will be your home for the next few months, so I want it to feel like it for you."

It wasn't common to be welcomed to the crew this well, and the contagious smile on the captain's face was all he needed to stop worrying.

"Thank you, I mean it," he returned a smile. He wanted to say something more, but didn't know what more he could add. "Thanks."

"All good." Ivali patted him on the back, making him stumble. She laughed before apologizing, "Sorry about that. Guess it will take some getting used to for both of us." She stared into the hallway for a moment, then pressed on her earbud. "Roger that, be right there." She looked back down at him. "We are ready to leave. Leave your backpack in the cabin and come with me to the bridge. We will jump to our destination, and then I will introduce you to the rest of the crew."

Adam nodded, threw his things onto the bed, and followed after the red woman. The girls, huh? Maybe this trip won't be as boring as the captain made it out to be.

------------|A|------------

"So, what do you think?" Kailith asked, leading them toward the research wing of the ship.

"You mean the ship?" Adam tried not to stare at her hips swinging gently from side to side as he followed after her.

"Everything. The ship, the job, the crew," she clarified, opening another airlock. "Well, not that you've met everyone yet, but what are your first impressions?"

He took a moment to think about it. The ship was impressive, the hyperdrive was a pretty new tech, a pricey one no less, and all the other aspects weren't that far behind. He saw only a small fragment of it so far, but the map he was provided with showed that it was at least twice as big as a ten-person crew would suggest. Then, there was a job. Kailith didn't go into the details yet, but it sounded rather easy, if not a bit tedious.

Lastly, the crew itself. So far, he had talked to the woman in charge, Ivali, and he had briefly met two pilots and the navigator on the bridge. As he came to expect, all of them towered over him, which he didn't know how to react to. The captain decided it would be best to spread the introductions over some time, not to put too much social pressure on him on the first day. It was a good solution, which he was grateful for; they would be stuck together on the ship for a few months, so one way or another, he would eventually meet everyone.

First in line was Kailith, the chief scientist, since she was the only one not doing double duty at the moment.

She was slightly shorter than the captain, but all that meant was that he almost reached her shoulder height, instead of not even coming close. Her skin was also red but of a lighter hue, which nicely matched her black hair. Walking behind her, he couldn't help but stare at her wide hips, straining against her tight pants. That wasn't, of course, her only attribute; with long legs and a narrow waist, she had a silhouette that would make men's imagination work just by seeing her shadow. He started wondering how old she was. As he thought about it, he didn't even know how long aivirians lived, so learning the number by itself wouldn't tell him much.

"I don't know what I expected, to be honest," he answered after a while, still following after her at a slow pace, "but everything turned out great so far, and I have a feeling it will stay this way. The ship is fantastic. I will need to get used to the scale and learn the layout, but aside from that, it is far nicer than most of the vessels I've been on. Hats off to your engineers, seriously. The captain said that I would rotate between positions, helping everyone a bit, to see what suits me best, so I don't think I will get bored here."

Kailith stopped in front of a heavy airlock, and he almost bumped into her. She pressed her finger against the scanner, and the hatch opened. Behind it, there was a room small enough that he didn't know if he could spread his arms without touching the opposing walls.

"Decontamination chamber," she explained, seeing the question written on his face, "we are supposed to go one by one, but I think the system doesn't work with your fingerprints yet."

She stepped in, taking almost all available space, then gestured for him to follow. "Come on, you will fit."

He did, walking in sideways, with his back pressed against the wall. The hatch closed behind him, and he found himself face-to-face with a bright red cleavage. The shirt she wore was unbuttoned at the top, giving him a perfect view, and up close, he could tell there was nothing beneath it. He tried looking up, but meeting Kailith's green eyes and seeing her half-smile as she studied him made him blush, so he turned to the side instead, hoping she wouldn't notice.

"And what about the crew, small guy?" She teased, leaning forward just barely, taking whatever space was left between his face and her breasts. "Any pleasant surprises here as well?"

He stammered, looking for an answer, but the roof of the room started hissing, and a second later, a jet stream of air hit them from above, washing away the sweet, almost flowery scent of Kailith's body that he had just started to like.

"Yeah, it's windy up here," she joked, stepping out of the hatch on the other side. "I lost count of how many times I was asked that as a pickup line. Anyway, here is a laboratory."

She began explaining what each machine did, and he had to pretend he wasn't still thinking about what had happened earlier. Was she coming on to him? Or just teasing? The possibilities were clouding his mind while the scientist walked him through the process of extracting samples from the asteroid ore, or something like that.

"Now you do it," she said as she stood back, nudging him closer to one of the machines.

"Sorry, what was that?" He realized he wasn't listening to her at all.

She sighed but didn't look annoyed. "Never mind that. There is a break room here if you need to take a nap," she pointed to a small room behind semi-transparent plastic doors. "Maybe it will be best to start after you get some rest, you almost fell asleep standing. We still have a few days before we start collecting the first samples, so there is plenty of time to show you around."

As she said it, Adam only now noticed how tired he was. It was already late when he was hunting for a spot on the ship, and now, several hours later, the exhaustion was getting to him. All the excitement kept him going, but even it had limits.

"Yeah, good idea," he agreed. "The captain already gave me a cabin, so I think I will go and crash for a few hours."

"Want me to walk you back?" Kailith asked, nodding toward the airlock and the decontamination chamber.

"You know what?" Adam didn't know if he could sleep if he went through that again. "On second thought, I think I will just use the break room."

"Sure thing, cutie," the scientist gave him a thumbs up with a smile and walked off to some machine on the other side of the lab.

He stood there for a moment, dumbfounded by what had just happened, then walked into the break room and closed the doors behind him. Only three things were inside: a chair, a small desk integrated into the wall, and something that was a mix between a bed, a couch, and a beanbag. It looked inviting, though. Very comfy, too, as he sat down on it.

He took his shoes off and planted himself face-first into the soft bed. He finally got off that awful station, found a job on a fantastic ship, and met some great people whom he would call his crewmates for a few months. Life was good.

------------|A|------------

He couldn't remember the last time he slept this well. Warm, comfy, and with no annoying noises of maintenance workers fixing up another elevator shaft. Maybe he could snooze for a few more minutes.

He tried turning around, but the sheets got caught on something and held him tight in place. He tried again but found himself unable to move his arms. He slowly started to notice that something wasn't right. There were no sheets when he went to sleep, and he certainly didn't use the travel pillow, even though he now felt one holding his head steady. He looked down to see what kept him in place and saw... arms.

Then the world spun a hundred and eighty degrees and pressed him even tighter into a soft, warm, gigantic pillow, blocking his vision with a smooth, red velvet. At least that's what it felt like before he noticed the sweet, flowery smell and understood what was happening.

Kailith was woken up by a muffled sound coming from somewhere below. She blinked slowly a few times, getting used to the soft light in the room, before she felt that something was straining against her body. Relaxing her grip, she heard a loud gasp for air and saw Adam's head almost entirely encompassed between her breasts.

"Hi there, cutie," she greeted him, still half-asleep. "Comfy?"

"Hi," he had zero idea how to act in this situation, "it's a bit tight."

"It's not; I'm barely holding you." She let go of him with one hand, rubbing her eyes and looking for something. "Where did I leave my tablet?"

Adam tried to wiggle free, but even with one hand, she easily held him in place.

"Hey, could you hmpffff!" Suddenly, he was lying on his back, and that sweet, soft body was pressing him with all its weight into the bed below. It lasted only a few seconds, but it still left him dazed after Kailith moved them back to the previous position, now holding her tablet with one hand. He couldn't see it, as his head was still stuck between her supple breasts, but he heard her swiping her finger against the screen.

"I don't want to ruin the mood..." he tried again before his words turned into a soft moan as she moved her other hand to the back of his head and began gently scratching it, making him melt into her embrace.

"Then don't," she said softly. "Just five more minutes, okay?"

His first reaction was to protest, but a well-timed rub near the base of the neck made him forget why he even wanted it to stop in the first place. Instead, he made a defeated, accepting grunt and resigned himself to her pampering.

------------|A|------------

They both walked into the mess hall an hour later.

After checking the time, he counted over eight hours, including the interruption, and felt better than ever, but when he looked at Kailith, she was still struggling to keep her eyes open. That's why her first idea was to get here and grab something for breakfast. And by something, she meant the protein paste, the only thing there was. Well, this, water, and a weird, black, caffeinated drink that many people were starting their days with back on the station, too. He never liked the taste.

"Could you get me a cup?" the sleepy scientist asked, slouching on one of the chairs as soon as she reached one. "Black, large. Then we can eat. Thanks"

Adam approached the distributor and took two cups. There were three buttons on it: white, red, and black. White was most likely clear water, black was the caffeinated one.

"What does the red button do?" He shouted, without turning back, as he filled the first cup holding the black button.

"It's flavored one, with a sweetener," a new voice answered. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw another crew member, one he hadn't met before.

She sat in front of Kailith, reading something from her tablet and taking notes in a paper notebook without looking at it. She must have been the medic the captain told him about. Unlike the previous two he spoke with, she had light blue skin and white hair with a hint of silver undertones and two small, straight horns just above her forehead. She wore a long, white lab coat with a black undershirt beneath it. Behind her glasses, he could see her yellow eyes going back and forth, scanning the text on her tablet.

"I advise you to try it," she added, not even looking up from her work, "and if possible, I would ask for a cup of red for myself as well."

He brought the red and black first, receiving thanks from both women before walking back to get his cup. As he approached the table for the second time, he noticed that the medic had stopped working and instead was staring at him intently, and not in a playful way.

He sat down and decided to break the awkward silence. "So, introductions. Hi, I'm Adam, the newest member of your crew since yesterday. And you are Mia, if Kailith told me correctly?"

"Miantaria." A quick, cold response. He almost missed the look she shot the other woman. "I downloaded all your medical records from the station's database. I know you."

The silence returned, and he felt the stare of her yellow eyes drilling a hole through him. Before he gathered the courage to try again, the medic turned to the other woman, who was sipping her black drink.

"Kailith, could you explain why Adam smells of your pheromones?"

"Wait, what?" he asked and was promptly ignored.

"Relax, we just took a quick nap in the same room," the scientist waved her hand dismissively, "one shower and it will pass."

"Adam, is that true?" The piercing gaze turned back onto him.

"Well, technically..."

"Hey, don't pick on the new guy!" Kailith cut in, grabbing his shoulder and sliding both him and his chair into a one-armed hug.

Miantaria leaned back on the chair, took a sip from her cup, and said nothing, letting Kailith realize she was pressing Adam's face against her breast. He didn't understand what was happening but knew that someone had done something wrong as the red woman let him go, clearly disgruntled with the whole scene.

"So tell me, what happened?" the medic asked with a professional concern.

"Adam was tired, so I told him to get some sleep in the break room," Kailith started to explain. "I've finished the startup checks of all of the machines and decided to do the same."

"So you two slept in the same bed."

"Yes."

Adam knew not to interrupt, so he let the silence hang, content with learning what was going on as a bystander.

"And you slept naked?" The doctor questioned further.

"No. Well, I just had my shirt off, but that's it."

There was another pause. Then, the blue woman took off her glasses with a deep sigh.

"Kailith, you know you are still coming down from the cycle, right? I know why you would want to keep it going, but that was irresponsible. You don't even know if it would work with a human. And even if it did, what's next?"

The scientist didn't respond, looking down at the table. Adam understood nothing from the conversation but felt as if he was witnessing a parent having The Talk with a child who got caught smoking.

"Adam, could you get me some paste, please?" Mia asked, putting her glasses back on. "The last thing I want is to deal with all of this on an empty stomach."

He stood up and walked to the second distributor, which only had one button, closely resembling the readers on the airlocks. He pressed it, but the screen, after a brief loading, displayed the message that the paste supply was empty.

That was weird. He tried again, twice more, but he still got the same error.

"I think the system still doesn't work with my fingerprints," he stated, getting both women's attention.

"Nonsense. Ottavia updated it ship-wide yesterday." Miantaria stood up and approached the distributor herself, pressing the button.

Brief loading, then a new reusable tube rolled out from one of the openings, was slotted into the nozzle and filled with paste, then screwed close and dropped down the tray.

Mia's brow furrowed as she started tapping on the distributor's touchscreen, opening various settings. Finally, she settled on one menu, where the system showed two columns, one titled B1 with a whole bunch of numbers and text underneath, all of which contained 'H35'. The other one was titled A1 and was empty.

"Just great." The doctor tapped her foot, lost in thought."Okay, here is what you will do," she addressed them both after a few seconds, "Kailith, you will show Adam where the showers are. And make sure he gets all that smell off of him. Also, all of his clothes need to be cleaned. You have spares, right? Good, just throw what you are wearing now into the washer. I will go talk to Ivali and explain the situation. Once you are done, meet us here. Is that clear? No, I don't want to hear any objections."

"Yes, all clear," Kailith confirmed, resigned.

"Are we in trouble?" Adam asked, nodding towards the red woman.

Miantaria stared at him with a look in her eyes he couldn't quite decipher.

"Her? Always. You? We shall see."

------------|A|------------

"All done. They will be washed and dried by tomorrow," Kailith announced as she walked into the bathroom, closing the airlock behind her, so as not to let the steamy air out.

"Great, thanks," Adam answered from behind the frosted plexiglass of his shower stall. "I'm almost finished here; just give me a minute."

"Take your time," came an answer. "I'm not exactly in a hurry to talk with Ivali and Mia anyway."

Adam went back over the earlier conversation for a dozenth time. After leaving the mess hall, they both came here, stopping by his cabin to grab his backpack. Then he got into the shower, and she took his clothes to get them cleaned, but they hadn't talked about what had happened. Even though it already involved him in some way, he didn't know how to start the conversation without prying into it.

"You know, I didn't expect a spaceship to have a spa onboard," he wondered aloud. "If I didn't know any better, I would say it's a recreational vessel. I mean, private showers I can understand, but a bath? With a television hooked up?"

"I know what you mean," she chuckled, "one of the sub-species of aivirians evolved to be semi-aquatic, so the bath is not a luxury but a necessity. Annaika, our navigator, spends hours here just soaking. She had the TV installed, and it's connected to the ship's systems, so she can work from here. The second reason is financial; even though it adds to the costs of construction, it pays back for itself twice over once the ship gets decommissioned and sold on the open market. People like to relax, and sometimes a warm bath can make all the difference."

"Especially on a months-long trip, right?" he asked, turning off the water.

"Yeah, even with our team, it sometimes gets lonely." There was a sense of longing in her voice, but she didn't let it take root. "Are you finished? Do you have a towel with you?"

"I don't think I do. Is it somewhere on your side?"

"Yup. Your clothes, too," she confirmed. "Want me to pass it?"

He hesitated a moment. "Erm, just hang it on the doors, thanks."

"Sure."

He had to jump to reach it and almost dropped his T-shirt onto the wet floor, but managed to catch it at the last moment.

"So, about the thing that happened yesterday," Kailith mentioned as he was dressing up, "I hope you're not mad at me for taking advantage of you like that."

He couldn't see her from behind the mostly opaque plexiglass, but he could hear the regret in her voice.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," he said, finishing dressing up.

"No, I'm serious. I got you in trouble on your first day."

Eh, fuck it. He walked out of the shower stall and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Let me clear out the situation." He took a deep breath, gathering courage. "When I woke up you got me by surprise, that's why I wasn't sure how to react, but I'd be crazy to hold a grudge against a girl who let me sleep with my head between her boobs, so we are all good. If you think you came on to me too strong, I'm all for clearing the sheet and starting again, but if you want to know my opinion, there is no need."

"Wait, so you enjoyed it?" Kailith seemed to be surprised by his explanation.

"Obviously. I know people who dreamed of something like this happening to them, and I won't pretend to be a saint and deny that I wasn't one of them."

"No, not as 'it was comfortable and warm', I meant sexually enjoyed it. "

"Yes? It was both comfortable and warm, and erotic, so both apply."

"Okay, wow." She leaned against the nearby sink, absorbing new information. "I thought I took advantage of you because I tried to use you to keep my cycle up. You didn't tell me you had one going as well."

"What is this cycle you are talking about?" Adam felt like the more they talked, the less they understood each other. "Mia mentioned it as well, but neither of you explained it to me."

"An arousal cycle?" Kailith was truly surprised now. "Don't humans have one?"

"You mean like getting more aroused and then coming down from it?" It was the first time in his life that he thought about it in this way.

"Yes!" she almost shouted, throwing her arms up. "When did your cycle start?"

"In the decontamination room?" He wondered but quickly added, "I meant this as a compliment. Then you started talking about the machines, so that kind of killed the mood, and I was tired anyway. And the second time when I woke up with you, but I think that one was obvious."

The woman blinked a few times, then pronounced each word with a pause to make sure he understood them. "Your cycle ended... because I started talking about the lab equipment? No, don't interrupt me. And then it started again when you woke up. So you are in a new arousal cycle right now?"

"Now? No, why? We are just talking."

They stared at one another for a while, trying to bridge the seemingly infinite cultural or intellectual gap. They both knew that there was some assumption that made it impossible to understand each other.

Kailith was the first one to figure it out.

"Wait a second. How long does the human's arousal cycle last?"

"Depends if you act on it," he shrugged, still wondering why she kept calling it a cycle. "A few minutes on the lower end if you don't, and up to, like, two hours if you do? I don't think it's healthy to keep it going any longer." It took him a second to properly understand her question when he saw her mouth hanging open. "Is it different for aivirians?"

"A week minimum."

They were both piecing together the logical puzzle of the conversation they had just had, now with a completely new understanding of each other.

"A week?" Adam asked, not sure if he heard it correctly.

"At least." Kailith nodded. "I usually stay in mine for two. And yours can start and end within a lunch break?"

"If there is a reason for it, but yeah," he confirmed, they asked, still taken aback, "A week? How do you get anything done?"

"I was wondering the same thing about you. Do you know if it will happen, or does it randomly just go off? No, don't answer that." The scientist shook her head and stood up, heading towards the airlock. "I need time to process all this, so let's drop this topic for now. Walk and talk? Mia and Ivali are probably already waiting for us."

"Yeah, same here. A week. Damn." It didn't sound any less ridiculous the third time he said it. "But between us, everything is fine, right?" he made sure, walking out into the corridor.

"Totally." Kailith gave him a warm smile. "Let's see if we can say the same about us and those other two. Oh, and one last thing. Do not call her Mia. Use the full name. She doesn't like it when someone uses the shortened one."

"Sure, no problem. Wait, but you always use the short one."

"I know." She smirked.

------------|A|------------

"Took you some time," Miantaria stood up as she spotted them walking into the mess hall, "but better late than never."

Before Kailith could sit down to join them, the doctor grabbed her by the shoulder and started dragging her away. "I'll have to borrow you for a while; we have a few tests to run." Then silenced the scientist before she even managed to protest. "No getting out of this one. We should let the new guy talk to the captain in private."

The red woman glanced at him, with an expression somewhere between 'I'm sorry' and 'nothing I can do here' before they both disappeared in one of the corridors.

"Adam," Ivali started, getting back his attention, "we need to discuss something."

"So, before you make any judgment, there were no malicious intentions from either side," he wanted to beat her to the punch, "it's a classic case of cultural differences, and we already talked it through, it's all good now."

"That's good to hear," the captain nodded, "and how did you figure out it was cultural differences that caused the problem?"

"I talked with Kailith before we came here about how the whole thing yesterday was just a misunderstanding."

"Interesting." Ivali leaned back in her chair. "So, what exactly happened yesterday?"

Adam was caught off guard by that question. Why was she...

God damn, he dug himself into this one. But her poker face was perfect.

"Nothing much." He tried.

"You know it's not wise to keep secrets from the captain, right?" She let the question hang, then leaned in close and spoke again, this time with a softer tone. "Don't worry, you already told me you both solved whatever the problem was, which I am happy to hear. Self-sufficiency and problem-solving are valuable skills in a crew, especially regarding interpersonal conflicts, not to mention on such long journeys."

She gave him a moment to think this through and calm down. She had too much experience with situations like this, but understood decades ago that they wouldn't stop happening simply because she got older. Each new person she met was a new chance to repeat all the same mistakes.

"But I would also want to know what is happening on my ship," she continued, staring him down, "and any events involving a new crewmate are quite high on my list of the need-to-know things. So, whenever you're ready."

Adam went over everything, starting with the walk to the science wing, the decontamination chamber, and what happened in the break room. Then he repeated the entire conversation with Kailith, making Ivali chuckle as he described the details.

"First of all, thank you for sharing that with me," the captain said after he finished. "I'm very happy with how you both handled it. I had a good feeling about you back at the station, and it seems I wasn't wrong."

"Thanks," Adam replied awkwardly.

"Now, I think it's best if I give you some context for the whole situation." She took a sip from her cup. "Aivirians are a bit different than humans. We are similar in basic anatomy- two arms, two legs, and all that- but the main differentiating factor is our metabolic rate. Doesn't sound that important at first, right? You live fast, at least by our standards. And while you can reach the age of a hundred and twenty, we can easily go past two hundred. You sleep for eight hours per day, we need ten to twelve. You rest, heal, and reproduce faster than we do. However, the arousal cycle is the biggest differentiating factor. As far as I know, you don't even think of it as a cycle since it's too short. You could see someone pretty or hear something suggestive, and you'd be ready to go. And five minutes later, you would be done."

"Don't sell me short here, five minutes?" She might know some things, but she didn't know him.

"Ten?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Fiveteen, easy. Twenty if I feel like it."

"Don't bullshit me, boy."

"Okay, maybe ten."

Ivali laughed. "No offense intended, small guy," she sent him a cheeky smile, "but back to the topic. For us, it's a whole process. It works the same way as it does for you, but everything happens more slowly. Imagine a whole day just to get in the mood."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"Is it work if you're doing what you love?" She shrugged. "Once we get going, our body is designed to help keep the ball rolling, mostly through the usage of pheromones. The couple spends time close to each other, and that's enough to move things forward. Of course, the more you help it, the faster it will progress, but I think you get the gist of it by now. Similarly, the cool-down process, as you could call it, takes time. Sometimes even days, especially if, after all the preparations, you didn't get the happy ending you hoped for, for whatever reason."

Adam nodded but didn't interrupt, letting her continue.

"Kailith is still young but spends most of her time here alone, with computers and machines. That's the job, no way around it, but it's obvious she misses physical interactions. After we finished our last scan, we hoped for at least two weeks of shore leave. As we docked at a large station, she found herself a partner for the stay. We, as a species, I mean, usually don't do that, but I'm guessing they were both in similar circumstances. Unfortunately for her, three days after our arrival, we received a call with the next task. The government does not like to be kept waiting, so we had to go. We dragged her back, which took some stern words, and set course to your station since it was along the way and had all the supplies we needed in stock." She took a pause here, looking into the distance, and he was almost sure he saw her jaw clench. "To wrap things up, then you arrived on board, and I'm guessing she was curious if she could use you to extend her cycle or at least let herself down gently. You'd need to ask her if you want to know if it worked."

"No offense, but I like our way of doing things. At least I won't need a guide every time I get horny."

"It's quite intuitive, maybe even too much so. I think that's why Kailith did what she did. It felt natural to her. None of us on board could be a potential partner for her, and you were something new, so she took her chance. I'm not trying to defend or justify her actions in any way. My only goal is to give you some perspective so you can make up your mind about the whole thing."

One thing got his attention, but he didn't know if it was appropriate to ask.

"Out with it, boy." Ivali could see straight through him.

"You said that none of you could be her partner? Not judging, just wondering how this works."

"Pheromones." She explained. "We react only to the smell of the opposite sex. The thing is, we have it in the contract with the gov that there must not be any pregnancies during our trips. Suits don't want to deal with the paperwork, and we don't have the facilities to support the mother or the baby, both during and after the fact. So when I was bringing the crew together, I decided not to risk it and make it impossible to happen."

"Right. Smart."

They both sat in silence for a moment as Ivali finished her drink. Then, she stood up and walked to the distributor.

"You want something?" She asked, after filling her cup.

"Red, please."

"I see you have a type."

"Too early to tell, to be honest," he decided to tease her right back, "but it certainly has strong representation."

Even though Ivali stood with his back turned to him, he saw her freeze in place. Only for a moment. She then cleared her throat and resumed filling the second cup. Maybe this wasn't his best move.

"Sorry," he said as she sat back down, passing him one of the drinks. "I meant it as a compliment, but I think I got the wrong message. It won't happen again."

"No, no, it's..." The captain stared at the table, holding her cup. One corner of her mouth was curled slightly up, but she got rid of it in short order. "Don't worry about it," she dismissed it, after a deep breath, "let's focus on the subject I wanted to talk to you about before we got sidetracked."

"Are we still in trouble?"

"No, at least not you both," she answered, pointing at him, "this one is about you specifically."

Adam felt his throat go dry.

"We already have a solution for the situation, so again, don't worry about anything. Let me explain it first." Ivali finished her drink and pushed her cup away. "We have been flying with the same crew for years now, some of us longer than others, but everyone on board was always an aivirian. Nothing surprising, given how the ship is built specifically towards our needs. Over time, we also streamlined our logistics, and instead of ordering general-purpose protein paste and a whole bunch of supplement pills, we began stashing only the purpose-made stuff. That's why I asked you to talk with your dockmaster about running the supplies check again for us."

"And I did," he cut in, getting some idea where the story was going, "the guy told me he would handle it."

"I know, I know, I'm not accusing you of anything," she calmed him down with a warm smile. "I asked you to do it to see if you would first carry out my order or go get your stuff. Just a little test for a new guy. A few minutes later, I got a second confirmation from the port that our supplies were in order, so I had two reasons to be happy."

"So what's the problem here?"

"The problem is that I've become too trusting over the years." She reached for the empty cup, looked inside, and slid it back away. "I should have realized that it all went too fast, and the guy working at the dock didn't do his job properly. When I received the confirmation, I assumed that the paste we eat can also be suitable for humans, so I didn't question it. Only after you tried to use the dispenser did Miantaria inform me that that's not the case."

"So you're saying that I have nothing to eat for the next few months?" This was a new one for him.

"Yes, but as I said, we already have a solution. We have cryo pods on deck in case of emergency, and we can put you into hibernation for the duration of the flight. We will wake you up after we arrive at the next station. It's perfectly safe, and you won't even notice you were out for so long."

"Well, it's good that I have other options than just to starve," he responded after a while, "but honestly, I was looking forward to working with you all here. I wanted to learn, to help. An opportunity like this is one in a hundred, most of the jobs on the market are just cargo ships, where all you do is watch the gauges and screw in loose bolts."

"I know, and I need to apologize for putting you in this situation," she nodded. "I will take full responsibility for this. As a research vessel, we can delegate logistics to the station, so I never bothered to hire a dedicated quartermaster, believing I could handle it myself. Once we get paid for the job, not only will you receive your cut, but I will also give you my share of the profits. And believe me, it's substantially higher than yours is right now. With this financial backing, you should be in a position to freely decide if you want to come with us for the next trip or stay at whichever station we reach and find some other ship to work on."

Despite being presented with a great solution, not to mention the unexpected promise of additional pay, somehow it still felt as if he was getting the worst end of the deal.

"Why exactly can't I eat your paste?" He asked, tapping his finger on the table. "Do we need some different kinds of proteins?"

"No, the proteins are exactly the same," the captain explained. "The issue is with the supplements inside our paste. Miantaria showed me the charts. I don't remember if they were vitamins or something else, but some additives present in our paste are in hundreds or even thousands of times higher concentrations than the recommended daily dosage for humans. If you were to eat what we have in stock, your liver would shut down within a week."

"Can't you filter them out somehow?"

He saw Ivali wince, even though she tried to hide by looking to the side.

"No," she stated, but hesitated before adding, "at least not with the devices we have in the lab. Miantaria told me she might have a solution and even explained it to me, but I would advise you to take the cryo option instead."

"Do you think her idea won't work?"

"I'm afraid it might." The captain stood up, collecting all the empty cups. "I was told she would contact you once she was done running tests with Kailith. I can't decide for you, but at least you know my stance on it. Cryo is safe and reliable, while the thing our doctor came up with is... Well, questionable at best. In almost every way you could think of."

------------|A|------------

Adam walked into the research lab half an hour after finishing the talk with Ivali. Inside were various devices and machines made from shiny steel and glass, neatly arranged on desks along the walls, with smaller, portable appliances spread on the tables in the middle of the room.

Miantaria stood in front of one of the bigger devices, looking at a large display, as the machine continued making a whirling noise. Kailith sat on the other end of the room, near the HVAC inlet, whose fans were for some reason set to high speed.

"I got the message that you wanted to talk." Adam held up his tablet, looking at the girls.

"Yes, sit down, please," the doctor confirmed, still watching the screen. "It will finish in twenty seconds, and I'll be right with you."

Adam did as he was told, finding a spare chair at the table, and turned towards the other woman in the room, but the scientist purposefully avoided his stare, looking anywhere but in his direction. He was about to question it, but the chime from the machine announced that it had finished whatever it was doing. Miantaria opened the front lid and pulled out a glass beaker the size of a large cup, halfway filled with some liquid.

"So, did the captain explain the issue with your food?" She asked, sitting in front of him and putting the glass on the table.

"Yeah, kinda shitty situation," he admitted, taking one more glance at the red woman, which didn't join them, still sitting alone, "she told me that it's either cryo or whatever you managed to come up with. She was pretty vague on what that was."

"That's because she didn't like my idea." The doctor noted, giving the liquid in the glass a swirl. "And if I am to be completely honest, if I weren't so curious if it could work, I would be against it too."

"This sounds ominous," he commented nervously. "Is it at least safe?"

"Oh, absolutely." Mia nodded and placed her tablet in front of him, scrolling through page after page of text and charts as if he could understand any of it. "I've done every single test I could, given the state of my lab equipment, and even run a few simulations using our onboard AI. Everything came out green, so there is nothing to worry about."

"So what made you and the captain so apprehensive about it?"

"Ethicacy, I guess? Take a look at this," she pushed the glass toward him, "and guess what this is."

Adam picked up the beaker and started studying the liquid inside. It was slightly viscous and milky-white, but at the same time, with patchy consistency, with some portions of it clearer and slimy, as if those two weren't mixed well. The color was similar enough to the protein paste he was used to, but pure, with no hint of gray, just like the more expensive brands made it. The texture was a lot different. Here, the white part looked almost as thick, even though it was a lot wetter, whereas the protein he bought at the station was almost dry in comparison. He took a sniff, and it felt familiar, like something he had already encountered on the ship, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"So, what do you think?" The blue woman asked, watching him closely.

"My best guess is that it's some kind of protein paste, but filtered and diluted," he took one more sniff, "I swear I know this smell."

"Technically, you are correct." The doctor raised an eyebrow in approval, surprised by his answer. "It's protein-rich, and compared to the paste from the distributor, it has certainly been filtered and diluted."

"So it's safe for me to eat? Or, erm, drink?"

"Sure. You can try it if you want," she gave him a half-smile.

He raised the glass to his mouth and was about to take a gulp when Kailith shouted at him.

"Stop!" The red woman stood up and approached them, snatching the glass from his hand. "You would just let him drink it, without telling him what it is?" She glared at the doctor, breathing heavily.

"He already guessed what it is," Mia shrugged, dismissing the accusation, "and he seemed willing to try, so why not?"

"He didn't guess shit!" The scientist looked at the beaker in her hand and placed it back on the table. "And you are just using him as a test subject to sate your curiosity."

"Isn't that exactly what you have done with him yesterday?" Miantaria pointed out.

"It's not the same." Kailith groaned. "We both didn't know what we were doing. Okay, I knew, but still, you can't compare it to what you are doing."

"Then let's not make the same mistake again, shall we?" The blue woman leaned back and pointed her hand at the glass. "Why don't you tell Adam what that liquid is? So he can make an informed decision."

Kay wriggled in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with how the pressure suddenly was on her.

"Why me?" She questioned.

"Because you literally made it."

Two women stared each other down for a few seconds, and neither of them seemed willing to back down, so Adam decided to remind them that he was still there.

"Come on now, I'm sure it's no big deal," he tried to loosen up the mood. "I mean, I seriously don't want to sleep through the entire flight, so any food is good food. As long as it doesn't destroy my liver."

"That's not food," Kailith stated.

"It can be, though," Mia retorted. "Nutritional value is all there; I've got the data to back it up."

The tension seemed to only rise, and he was sure that if he left the room right now, the girls would be at each other's throats in seconds. Or maybe he wouldn't even need to leave.

Well, there was one way to put an end to this showdown.

"Cheers." He swiped the beaker from between them, stood up from the table to make some distance, and emptied it in one big swing.

At least that was the intention, but the liquid was so thick, he couldn't get it all down in one go. Seeing Kailith already pounce to grab the glass from him, he filled his mouth with as much as he could before she took it away. Then, with small gulps, he slowly swallowed it all.

It wasn't comparable to any paste he had tried before. He could feel the different texture of the two mixed liquids, one slimy and slick, slightly sweet, which was the first to reach his taste buds. Then came the white one, viscous and thick; it rolled over his tongue and left a rich aftertaste even after he swallowed it down. Even now, he couldn't tell how it tasted; the flavor was so unique that he didn't know what to compare it to.

After he took the last gulp and licked his lips clean, he noticed that both women were staring at him, one in curiosity, the other in disbelief.

"You... you drank it all," Kailith stammered, looking at the half-empty glass in her hand.

"Maybe he would if you didn't interrupt," Miantaria pointed out. "Also, you've got a bit left on your chin."

"Thanks." He swiped his finger, collecting the few droplets he spilled, then sucked it clean. "See? No big deal. Now we just have to wait to see if my liver is okay."

"Why did you do it?" the scientist still questioned him, dumbfounded.

"Because I'm not fat enough to last the whole trip without food," he joked, but seeing as it didn't help, he tried again, more serious this time. "I don't want to spend the whole flight stuck in cryo. And honestly, I could get used to this stuff; the texture makes it a bit hard to swallow, but the taste is great. Much better than any paste I've tried so far. Not a high bar to beat, with how bland they all are, but still. How did you make it, by the way? Ivali told me that you don't have the equipment to filter out the additives."

"That's true," Mia nodded toward the red woman, "luckily, we have Kay-Kay here."

"You mean she filtered it?" Adam asked.

"Yup."

"Do you have your own equipment in the lab to do that?" he asked, but Kaylith once again started avoiding eye contact.

"Nope." The doctor answered for her. "It was all her."

"I don't get it," Adam looked from one woman to the other, "so like, manually? How do you take vitamins out by hand?"

"Not by hand." Mia was almost grinning, having too much fun watching them both.

"Okay, stop messing with me." Adam chuckled nervously. "Next, you're gonna say that you found it in one of the asteroids. What did I drink?"

"I was cum, okay?!" Kailith shouted, throwing the glass across the room where it shattered, hitting the wall. "You drank my cum."

The silence was broken only by the quiet buzz of the fan, continuously circulating the fresh air around the ship.

The scientist breathed heavily, looking at the splatter on the wall where the glass had hit. Adam then watched her turn straight to him, he saw her all flushed at the face, which was barely visible against her naturally red skin. She opened her mouth to say something but shook her head instead, then pushed him aside and stormed off out of the lab.

"What did she say?" Adam asked once the airlock closed.

"I think you heard her right," Miantaria took out her tablet and started typing on it, "now, I've got a few tests to run on you, to double-check if everything is fine."

"Wait a second," he heard the words, but the meaning was only now getting to him, "you mean like an actual cum?"

"Ejaculate, seminal fluid, sperm, or however you want to call it," the doctor nodded, "using different descriptions doesn't change what it was."

"But... wait... what?" He sat down, getting lightheaded, "I thought... aren't you all girls in the crew?"

"Correct." Mia continued typing, "What about it?"

"Girls don't do that."

The blue woman blinked a few times, looking at him, then perked up. "Oh, right, humans are a bi-gendered species. Sorry, I thought you at least learned the basics before you came on board." She locked her tablet and started to explain. "Aivirians are mono-gendered. Our entire species is just women. But, just like you, we are divided into two sexes. Now I get why you are confused. For humans, sex dictates outward appearance, but for us, it doesn't. It's called sexual dimorphism."

"So, Kailith has... You know." He made it sound like a question, maybe because he hoped to be wrong.

"A penis? Of course," the doctor confirmed, "I've done her medical check-up; it's not something I would miss. Not to mention the evidence you swallowed."

Adam sat limply in his chair, staring aimlessly at the table.

"Hey, don't overthink it." She grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "It's not a big deal, remember? You said it yourself."

"Yeah, no, it might be now that I think about it. I can't believe I've done this."

"Seriously?" Mia asked, surprised. "Don't you normally do it when you have sex?"

"What?"

"I watched some videos made by humans, and it seemed to be a very popular part of your intercourse. Most sites I visited even had a dedicated category for that."

"Wait, do you mean porn?"

"Yes."

The absurdity of the situation approached the level where he, for a moment, stopped caring what was happening and just went with the flow.

"Why did you watch human porn? Fuck, that sounds weird."

"I took extra classes during my doctorate," she shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing, "and one was about the sexuality of other species, so I've picked humans and done some research. In those videos, oral sex was almost always included, and if one of the participants had an orgasm during it, the other would usually swallow the ejaculate. As I understood it, it's an act widely regarded as a show of affection toward the other partner. On a side note, I think it's really interesting how you choose partners without the use of any biochemical signals."

Adam took a second to run her entire statement again in his head. Except for the last sentence, since it was way beyond his current mental state to analyze. The number of questions he had could keep them both here for hours.

"In those videos," he started, carefully formulating his sentence, "how often was it the woman who swallowed?"

"Nearly always, as far as I can remember. Unless the pairing was with only men. I didn't watch those; it looked weird."

"So you do understand, that it's not a normal thing for men to swallow someone's cum?"

"Makes sense, since your women do not possess the necessary organs for that to be the case." Miantaria agreed. "But I don't see where you are going with this."

"I am a man. Connect that fact with my previous sentence."

"Again, your logic is sound, but only as long as you ignore what I said."

"What do you mean?"

"So, you are a man; that much is obvious. And I assume are attracted exclusively to girls; is that correct? Most of the human men are, as far as I know."

"Correct."

"And Kailith exhibits most of the characteristics of a female of your species, right? Pretty face, long hair, large breasts, narrow waist, wide hips, long legs, and so on. Are you not attracted to her? By the way, don't tell her that I described her like this. I'm not joking, if you do, we are going to have a problem."

"What? Why? It's not like it was an insult."

"I said. Don't. Tell. Her." She snapped at him but quickly regained composure, "Just forget what I said, and answer the question. Are you attracted to her?"

"I mean," he scratched his head, knowing how easy it would be to lie, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, "yeah, but..."

"So in a purely hypothetical scenario," Mia didn't let him back out, "of intercourse between you two, wouldn't it make sense for you to swallow her ejaculate? As most humans do after performing oral sex, according to my research."

"What?" He knew she was onto something, and he didn't know if he liked it. "No, of course not."

"But we already established that human man does not swallow not because they don't want to, but because they can't. A problem of anatomy, so to speak, and not attraction." She went on, dismantling his worldview. "Going back to our hypothetical intercourse, it would be possible for you to do it since Kailith is not a human and has the necessary organs. Taking into account everything we both said, wouldn't it make sense for you to do so? To want to do it even, as a show of appreciation, or potentially affection?"

Adam didn't know how to answer. Thousands of years of biological and cultural evolution didn't prepare humanity for an encounter with extraterrestrial species, especially with the ones similar enough to relate to them but different enough to start asking some difficult questions.

"Can we not talk about it anymore?" He gave up, resting his head on the table. "I've had a stressful day, and I'm not ready to start questioning my sexuality."

"Oh, I'm not trying to convince you to change anything." Mia waved her hand dismissively. "I just like arguing, and that was an easy one. And by the way, you don't have to be involved sexually with her in any way, even if she most likely wouldn't be against it."

"What do you mean?" He didn't know if he was asking about the first or the second thing she said. She wouldn't be against it?

"Even if it's the wrong way to do it, she is perfectly capable of reaching an orgasm by herself. That's how she provided me with the test sample you drank and how I suspect all future samples will be extracted. Unless..."

"First of all, stop reminding me about it," he started, but got interrupted almost immediately.

"Why should I? You said you could get used to eating it."

"That was before..."

"And you said you liked how it tastes."

"Okay, stop!" his grip on the conversation was slipping again. "Can we just leave this topic?"

Miantaria wore her half-smile like a weapon, squinting at him from behind her glasses.

"You liked it, didn't you?"

"No." It took every ounce of concentration he had to keep his poker face.

"It's not wise to lie to your doctor."

"Go fuck yourself," he couldn't help but laugh, "you stole that from Ivali."

Now it was her turn to laugh.

"Guilty as charged," she took off the glasses and wiped a tear from her eye, "but it tells more about you than me, since you already must have lied to her to know that."

"Yeah, I tried to hide what happened between me and Kailith yesterday," he quickly described the talk he had in the mess hall. "She saw right through it."

"That's our captain for you," the doctor nodded, "she has that position for a reason."

They both took a few breaths as the tension dissipated. Mia's tablet made a quiet chime, getting their attention.

"Right, that." The doctor picked up the device and scrolled through a few pages. "Since I still have you here, could I run a few tests? Just to double-check if everything is fine with you."

"Sure, might as well," he shrugged. "Anything specific?"

"Most intrusive would be the blood test," she explained. "I hope you're not afraid of needles."

Adam shook his head.

"Fantastic." She started typing on her tablet, then sent him a cheeky smile. "Also, I will need you to take off your clothes. Standard procedure, you see."

------------|A|------------

The whole test took almost an hour, during which she did most of the heavy lifting. He simply let himself get worked on and observed, asking questions about specific devices they used and the purpose of a few examinations. By the end of it, he even got to operate one of the machines, under the supervision of the doctor, of course, finishing the check-up.

"Everything looks fine." Miantaria scrolled through the results. "I wasn't sure if the hormones in the fluid would have any effect on you, but it seems they don't."

"What type of hormones? Like testosterone?"

"No, the ones I was worried about are specific to our species. They are responsible for our arousal cycle and the chemical composition of pheromones. Since you have neither the pheromone glands nor follow the cycle, I suspected your body would ignore them."

"So I'll live?"

"Yup, and won't even need a new liver," she joked. "The question now is, do you want to do cryo or stay awake?"

He hesitated, remembering that he still had to decide what to do.

"Before I walked here, I was certain I wouldn't pick the pods, as long as whatever you came up with wouldn't kill me. But now I don't feel it's my choice anymore. Since Kailith is involved as well."

"I understand," The doctor said professionally, "but you need to know I have already talked with her about this. Don't look so surprised. Did you think I would propose this solution without her approval? Bodily autonomy is a cornerstone of medicine, at least it was where I made my degree."

"But is she really okay with this? Running a test with you is one thing, but this would be a, you know, long-term commitment, let's say. I don't want her to feel pressured into doing this since I have another option."

Miantaria kept quiet, then picked up her tablet and tapped on the screen a few times. Next, she placed it on the table in front of her and waited.

"What are you doing?" Adam asked.

"Just give it a moment."

He did just that, and they both sat in silence until the device made another chime. The blue woman picked it up and nodded.

"She said she will do it."

"Who said?"

"Kailith."

"You messaged her?"

The doctor started reading the text message. "I talked with Adam. He said yes, but only if you are also fine with it."

"I didn't exactly agree to it yet," he complained.

"Hush. Here is what she replied. Quote: I already said I would do it; don't guilt trip me now. What do I do now? End of quote."

Miantaria looked at him, but when he remained silent, she started typing. "I told her that you both can start tomorrow. If at any point either of you decides that you don't want to continue, let me know, and I will prepare the cryo."

"Thanks, I guess," that's how it always went with any visit to the doctor, no matter the time or place. He walked in with one problem and walked out with a solution that was an even bigger problem than the one it solved. "So, do I go help her in her lab, or what?"

"No, I think it's best to give her some space now," the blue woman decided, "and I have some plans for you. I will show you where we have the physical training room. You will do some cardio, then some resistance exercises, and then we will run the tests again to triple-check that your body is behaving as it should once it finishes digesting. Tomorrow, you can go back to the science wing and start helping for real."

------------|A|------------

Despite stressing about it the whole day before and a large part of today's morning, the work in the science wing went relatively smoothly.

When he entered the lab hours ago, Kailith was already setting everything up. They greeted each other, and she began explaining to him what each machine does. They also went to the hangar on the lower decks to grab a few spare rocks they didn't bother to clear out after their last mission, and used them to simulate the procedure that would need to be done once they received proper samples from the asteroid belt they were heading towards.

It was all methodical and professional. No teasing, no breaks together, no naps. From the outside, it was a picture-perfect image of how the lab should be operated.

But at the same time, they both felt the tension rising with each passing hour. He purposefully came late to make sure Kailith had already eaten breakfast, but now the lunch hour was getting close, and neither of them knew how to handle it.

"So, I talked some more with Mia yesterday," Kailith started, opening and closing the setting menu on one of the machines, "and she gave two thermoses to... You know, have something to collect the..."

"I know," he answered quickly and started heading toward the airlock. "I was thinking I could grab some more rocks from the hangar. It will probably take a while, so message me once you are, ah, done. Sounds good?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Thanks." "Thanks." They said at the same time. Both of them chuckled. Then, Adam walked out.

He didn't get any samples, going straight to his cabin instead. The ship's databanks had some entertainment stuff, mostly movies, some games, and a few books. He turned on one of the aivirian TV shows he picked at random and let it play on his tablet. He started watching it yesterday, trying to get his mind off the whole thing, but the culture gap he felt was increasing with each episode, preventing him from slipping into the comfortable, mindless state.

He saw the actors on the screen and heard the dialogue, but his whole attention was focused on the top of the screen, where the notifications showed up. Any minute now, there should be a message. Any minute now.

He paused the video to check how long it was playing. Ten minutes. It shouldn't be long now. Play.

Pause. Fourteen minutes. No messages. Play.

Pause. Twenty-one minutes. No new messages. He checked the video again; twenty-one minutes and fifty-six seconds. Hmm. Play.

Pause. Twenty-five. Maybe he missed it. No, zero new messages. She probably forgot. But was he going to go back to check? Absolutely not. Play.

Pause. Twenty-nine. She must have forgotten. Or maybe she didn't start right away. Yeah, that was probably it. Any minute now. Play.

The episode ended at exactly thirty minutes. Five more, and he would check on her. Next episode. Play.

The tablet chimed. Fucking pause.

"I'm going to the mess hall, be back in thirty," he read aloud, "I left it in the break room."

------------|A|------------

He sat on the bed, staring at the thermos in front of him.

It was big, probably twice as large as the water cups at the distributor, and made entirely out of metal. But it wasn't full, right? He picked it up, noticing how heavy it was. He felt something sloshing inside, but not in the way the water would.

The lid was a solid piece of metal, so he had to unscrew it.

It wasn't full. But that didn't matter. Some time ago, he read somewhere that for a human, the average volume for a single ejaculation was about a teaspoon.

Not half a thermos, which he couldn't even fully wrap his hand around. So, about a full cup of milky white liquid. Ridiculous. Impossible. It didn't make any sense. But he saw it, flowing and mixing as he swirled it around. The same as yesterday, some clear fluid on the top, with a lot more of a thick, white one below it.

He recognized the smell, which he had missed yesterday, probably because it was still warm. It smelled like her. Like the time he woke up cuddled to her body. He brought it closer to his face and immediately pulled it back, nervously looking around as if anyone could hide with him in a small break room. He forced a laugh out, calming himself slightly.

He picked it back up, taking a cautious sniff. Warm, sweet, and kinda flowery. Everything about it, the volume, the smell, even the thicker consistency, went against how he expected it to be. Maybe he wanted to feel repulsed by it, disgusted even, but he wasn't. If only his body rejected it, then it wouldn't be his choice anymore, and he could call off the whole thing and go into cryo with a clear conscience.

But it didn't, not giving him an easy way out. He had to make the decision himself. And he was getting hungry.

No more stalling; let's get this over with. He put the metal rim of the thermos to his lips and tilted it, letting its warm content flow down.

Hate it.

The clear, slick liquid again reached his mouth first. It was sweet, but only barely. It was like just a hint of a taste, a promise of the things to come, without spoiling the next experience. Not enough to be satisfying in itself, but tantalizing enough to want more.

And so he started swallowing, feeling it going down his throat.

Dislike it.

Then came the rest. The milky white liquid rolled onto his tongue, its thick consistency filling his mouth before it reached his throat. There was this taste again. Warm, sweet, and ever so slightly salty. Flowery. It instantly brought back memories of her body pressed against his, her scent, her gentle touch. He swallowed again and again.

Be disgusted.

Until the thermos was empty. He placed it back down on the desk.

Hate it. Please, hate it.

But he didn't, no matter how many times he tried to convince himself.

"Fuck me." He lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Why in the goddamn do they have tasty cum? Evolutionarily, what's even the point?"

A few minutes later, he stood up, grabbed his tablet, and sent the message to Kailith: 'Thanks.' Send. Then one more, 'The doc will probably want to run some more tests, we can get back to work tomorrow.' Send. Miantaria didn't explicitly tell him that she would want to run tests every day, but he assumed so. He will pay her a visit later.

On the way to his cabin, he got a ping when he received a reply. 'OK.' A few seconds later, another one, 'Everything good?'

'Yes.' He stared at the screen before deleting it and typing something else: 'I don't know.' He deleted that one, too. 'We'll talk tomorrow, okay?' He deleted that one as well. 'Yeah.' Send.

No response. He closed the doors to his cabin and started the next episode of the show.

------------|A|------------

The next day was the same.

He came in late. They went through the motions, where she explained the purpose and usage of each of the machines in the lab, and he answered questions to prove he understood. Standard work until the lunch hour, when he went back to his room and returned to binge-watching the show, waiting for her signal.

Ping of the message. Forty-two minutes. Almost halfway through the second episode.

Walk to the science wing.

Find the thermos left in the break room. It wasn't as full as yesterday.

Drink.

Walk back to the cabin. Play the next episode. Do some cardio. Take a shower. Stop by the med bay for a quick check-up. Finish the episode. Go to sleep.

------------|A|------------

His fourth day onboard was different.

He watched the full two episodes before he got the message. Then he noticed that the thermos was lighter than yesterday. Once he unscrewed the lid, he found it was filled only a quarter of the way with a substantial portion of clear liquid.

He drank it anyway. Not enough to sate his hunger, but maybe enough to get him through the day.

As he walked back, he got a new message. 'Can we talk? It's important.'

He put the tablet back, now wanting to respond right away. Not knowing how to respond. Only in the secure confinement of his cabin did he pull it back out, starting to type.

'Sure.' Send. The next one, immediately after. 'Should I come to the lab?'

'No.' Then the three dots danced on his screen for a while as she was deciding what to type next. 'Unless you want to.'

He started writing the response, but got one more message. 'I think it will be easier to write.'

'Yeah.' He agreed before she had the chance to write anything more. 'So, what's up?' He tried keeping it casual, the text masking his nervousness. It probably worked both ways, he thought.

'So... my cycle is winding down.'

He didn't interrupt, knowing there would be more to it.

'Mia told you how it works, right? I noticed it yesterday, but today was really tough to... You know. I don't think this will work unless I get in the mood again.'

'Yeah, I noticed.' He remembered the... volume difference... of his meals over the last few days. 'Is there any way to do something about it?'

'That's why I wanted to talk. Do you remember the night in the break room?'

Vividly. All the time.

'Yup.'

'If that's okay with you, we could try that again.'

'Sure.'

He replied too fast. Way too fast.

'I mean, if there is no other way, I...' Even with his frantic pace, she was faster.

'Nice.' And then one more. 'On my way.'

He deleted whatever he was writing, the message no longer relevant, given the current situation.

'Like, right now?' Send.

No reply.

A few nerve-wracking minutes later, there was a knock on the door to his cabin. He paused the TV show he was unsuccessfully trying to use to distract himself, stood up from the bed, and walked to the panel near the doorway.

Kailith stood a few feet back from the door. She wore a different pair of pants than before, but those were just as tight as the ones he always saw her in. She probably left her lab apron in the research wing, making her short-sleeved, buttoned shirt look almost inadequate in the task of managing her bust.

"Can I come in?" She asked, glancing down the corridor.

"Yeah, sure." Adam moved aside, letting her walk through the doorway.

He closed the doors and wanted to return to bed, but when he saw she had already taken his previous place, he hesitated briefly and decided to sit on the chair. The cabins were designed with a single occupant in mind, and there was little space not currently occupied, which made avoiding staring at each other particularly awkward.

"I didn't think you would come so soon."

"There is not much to do yet," she explained. "We ran all the necessary checks twice already, and I was told that we should get the first proper samples tomorrow."

"So today is our last lazy day?"

"It seems so," she smiled, getting comfortable on the bed, "so I thought that we could take a break together. You know, to be fully rested before we have to start working for real."

"And no other reason, huh?" He snickered, his eyes tracing her long legs, then venturing up to her bust.

"Nope," she giggled, placing one finger on her chin in an exaggerated gesture, "well, maybe aside from wanting to spend some more time one-on-one with you, since you were so eager."

"Me?" He faked indignation, mesmerized by the way her breasts swayed each time she moved. "Didn't this whole thing start after you couldn't keep your hands off me?"

"I saw how you looked at me the first time we met, so I did what we both wanted." Her finger traced the line from her chin, down her neck, and between her cleavage, captivating his attention, "and even after that day, you never stopped stealing glances. Exactly like you are doing now."

He felt himself blush, but there was nowhere else to look in the cramped cabin.

"I never said that I mind," she added with a sultry voice, her finger hooking the topmost button and pulling it slowly down, making the view better and better.

Then she stopped.

And started laughing.

"Wow, humans are seriously that easy to get going."

Adam blinked twice, taken aback by the sudden change in the tone of their meeting. Kailith still looked devilishly hot, but now, with the tension broken and with her innocent smile, he thought that 'pretty' would be more appropriate. It amazed him how she could be a temptress in one moment and simply an attractive girl in the next.

He relaxed a bit, but the red woman noticed that her previous efforts still lingered in his memory.

"Hey, sorry about that, it was a stupid idea," she sat up, probably feeling it was appropriate for the situation, "I just wanted to see for myself how your cycle works, ever since we talked after your shower that day. It really is that fast, huh?"

"Well, that depends on..." he stopped mid-sentence, noticing she wasn't looking at him, or at least not at his face, but a bit lower. He pulled his knees together, but it was too late.

"Depends on what?" she asked, pinning him in place with her stare.

"Company. Visuals. Situation. Many things," he stammered, "could we maybe change the subject?"

"Hmm, maybe we aren't so different after all," she commented, half to herself.

This reminded Adam of a single fact he couldn't rationally deny but still didn't believe. Mia didn't have a reason to lie to him, but he wouldn't believe it until he saw it himself. And with how tight Kailith's pants were, there was no way...

Nope, nothing.

"I'm not in the mood... yet," she stated awkwardly, seeing his eyes wander, "but, yeah, maybe we should change the topic."

He simply nodded, standing up, and immediately forgetting his next step.

"So, will we fit, or..." he half asked, unsure what the plan was.

"We should; it will be a bit tight, but I think we can make it work." The scientist moved to the back half of the bed, patting the now-empty space beside her. "Come on now, we have a show of yours to watch."

Even if Adam had some ideas on how to make use of the space she left him, this wasn't up to him once he sat down on the bed. As soon as he turned his back to her, he was swiftly and decisively put into a little spoon position, with a whole lot of soft padding against his head and back.

"Comfy?" the voice from behind him asked.

"Yeah," he moved his head from side to side, feeling the familiar sensation of her chest hugging his neck like the world's most comfortable pillow, "very comfy."

"If you behave while we watch, I may take my shirt off before we sleep," she whispered right into his ear. "Would you like that?"

He had to swallow before he could answer.

"Yes."

"Would you like me to take off something more?" She teased with a husky voice.

"I..."

Wait a second.

He looked back, the best he could, only to confirm his suspicion. This wasn't the face of a temptress. Not with a shit-eating grin and while staring at his crotch.

"Wow," he put as much disappointment into this one word as he could, "just wow."

"Sorry, sorry!" She giggled, with not enough decency to feel ashamed of his remark. "But it's just fun to watch you get all flustered. And I did barely anything!"

A grumpy person would cross their arms and push themselves deeper into the blankets. Adam did just that. The difference was that whatever served as a blanket behind him jiggled when he did that. Kailith, fortunately, understood his intention despite the mismanaged execution.

"I promise, I won't tease you anymore," there was a slight pause, "today."

This cheap vow wouldn't satisfy him in normal circumstances, but then he felt her hand sneak onto the back of his head and her fingers trace through his hair, gently scratching him. He lasted almost ten seconds before she forced a soft sigh from him. First of many to come.

"No fair," he breathed, but he did nothing to stop her. Not that he could or wanted to.

"Shhh, we watch the movie now," she silenced him, "I already saw this whole series twice, it's great." Then she added, "I didn't know you would be into romance, by the way."

"That's a romance? But the main characters barely talk to each other."

"We are only seven episodes in, it's still setting the stage."

"The prologue is seven episodes long?"

"Shhh!"

Her hand gave him a firm squeeze, which sent a shiver down his spine. Then it relaxed, returning to the lazy, soporific pace, which made his eyelids feel heavy.

Maybe he could close them for just a moment and let himself be pampered for a while.

------------|A|------------

"So, that would be all for now," Kailith said, setting a timer on one of the machines. "Now all we do is wait."

Adam was finishing dusting the countertop on the other side of the lab, as he was also done with his part of the work. The first batch of rocks was delivered a few hours ago. Most of them were no bigger than his fist, so they didn't need to process them before starting the tests, which saved a lot of time.

"How long will it take?" He asked, throwing the dirty rag into the recycler.

"The shortest one between two and three hours," she answered, pointing to one of the smaller machines in the corner, "but most won't finish today. It depends mostly on how complex the structure of the ore in those rocks is. If it's just iron, it will be quick, but for any complex alloy with three or more metals, it could take a full day."

"Wasn't this supposed to be our first real day of work?" Adam was kind of underwhelmed. On any other ship he had worked on so far, this wouldn't even constitute a lunch break.

"Beauty of a science trip," Kailith shrugged. "Sometimes you get an easy one, and sometimes you have so much to do you don't know where to start. Be glad you didn't join us on our previous run. It was awful."

"Really?" He leaned against one of the tables. "How hard can sorting rocks be?"

"Long story." She walked past him and opened the doors to the break room. "Do you want to hear about it?"

He had memories connected to this room. Good ones. That's where it all started, and they haven't been together inside since then. And now, she was inviting him in.

"We've got time, right?" He smiled and walked inside, with her following just after.

------------|A|------------

"And here is the sample that caused us the most trouble," Kailith scrolled to the next picture on her tablet, "we learned only after we went back to the station, that the entire asteroid belt was once a whole fucking planet, which must have been destroyed at some point in time. Half of the samples we collected had remnants of biological material."

Adam stared at the gray rock split into two halves with a slightly greenish core. Well, that, and the woman sprawled on the bed beneath him. They tested a few positions over the past thirty minutes, from simply sitting beside each other to lying as they first slept together in this very bed, but the size difference made it awkward or uncomfortable to share the device in a way that would suit them both. The obvious solution for Adam to sit on Kailith's lap was proposed by her, but he didn't want to hear about it. Having his head between her boobs could make him agree to many things, but he wasn't going to allow anyone to treat him like a child. Her saying that she finds it cute didn't help her case.

They finally settled on a compromise: the bigger scientist lay on her side, and the human sat in front, leaning against her belly. Physically, it was very comfortable. Mentally, it was a challenge to pay attention to her story.

To his right, there was a sinful curve of her hips, still clad in form-fitting pants, not to mention an inhumanly thick thigh, just begging for a good slap. To his left, there were two perfect breasts, each bigger than his head, with a gravity-defying perkiness. And despite all those temptations, it was her face that pulled his gaze most of the time. Maybe because it wasn't rude to stare at someone's face, unlike the other parts, but the longer she talked, the more his perception of her changed.

Previously, she was an alien scientist - an imposing figure, both in terms of physical size and importance in the crew. Someone who was supposed to show him the ropes around the ship and judge if he was a good fit to work with them. Not to mention the gap in their position; she was working as a researcher for years, he presumed, while he was fresh out of the academy, with no real experience in the field, aside from a few gigs here and there. Someone who solidified her position to the point where she was running the research with no oversight from the rest of the team.

But the more he listened to her talk about their previous trip, the more this perspective shifted. Now, he saw a young girl, fresh out of college, still figuring out how to handle her first job because she was forced by circumstance to figure it out on her own. Someone passionate about her field of study, sacrificing the best years of her youth, missing who knows how many parties and new connections for a chance to work in the underappreciated niche of science. And despite talking about machines and rocks, she always connected the story to a situation from her school days, mentioning both real names and nicknames of close friends she studied with. A person who, despite building her life around the buzz of electronics and the hum of machinery, still missed every second she couldn't spend with someone close to her.

"And here is me in a hazmat suit." Kailith swiped to the next photo, oblivious to his wandering thoughts. The screen showed a selfie of her in an air-tight yellow uniform. "We didn't know at first if the biological elements could pose a problem, so I had to work for two weeks straight wearing this. Imagine putting it on and off twice a day in that small decontamination chamber. Awful. Anyway, what's next?"

She swiped again, looking for the next photo she could turn into a story, but stammered when she saw what appeared on the display. She swiped quickly twice more, trying to scroll past, but it only made her dig herself deeper into the hole. Embarrassed, she locked the tablet, turning off the screen.

Adam, despite her best efforts, had a great view of all three photos before she turned the device off. The details were blurry, but there was no mistaking the red, curvaceous body, seen from the point of the camera held in her hand. The first one was so familiar that he almost felt as if he had seen it before, mostly because Kailith was wearing similar clothes to what she had worn for the past few days. But the next two ones were much better.

Both showed the scientist from the waistline up, in all her naked glory. On the first one, she was most likely in her cabin, sitting on the bed, with one hand struggling to cover her breasts, the fingers of her hand sinking deliciously into one of the soft globes. Even though it was cropped to end just above her tummy, a sly wink captured in the picture painted a clear intent; this was not a piece intended just for herself.

The last photo was even better. And not only because it was taken in the very room they were currently in. Kailith was lying on her back, looking straight at the camera with both hands resting freely above her head. Her lips were slightly parted, tongue provocatively out, chest on full display. Even though he didn't get enough time to catch all the details, he could swear the view in the frame ventured below her navel.

"I forgot I still had those," the young woman started, unsure how to proceed, so for the moment, she let the silence hang.

"You look great in them," Adam admitted, nodding his head in appreciation. "I mean, I don't think it's possible for you to not look good, in a photo or not, but I was talking about the shots themselves. Professional work."

"Don't lie." She seemed apprehensive, but he felt her breath quicken, still leaning against her abs. "They are nothing special."

But you are. That was his first thought. He didn't feel ready to say it out loud.

"But you didn't make them for yourself, right?" he asked instead, guided by his previous feeling, "especially that last one."

"You saw it all, huh?" Kailith groaned and turned onto her back, staring at the ceiling for a long while. "Could we not talk about it?"

"We don't have to if you don't want to." He scooched over to the side of the bed, giving her more space. "Private life is private, it's in the name. I won't pry into it."

"Thanks." He knew there was more to it, so he kept quiet. "But I think you should know about this since it kind of involves you."

"I don't think it does. I would have remembered if I saw those photos before, believe me," he joked, trying to loosen the tension a bit.

"Ahh, it's not about the photos," she grunted, still not looking at him, "not entirely. When we were coming back from our last trip, I connected to the station's network through the onboard long-range comms. There, I posted the first picture on some forum, saying I had a shore leave and was looking for some fun. I had a lot of replies. A lot. And one of them was an aivirian girl. Like, girl-girl," she specified, keeping in mind the difference of their species, "we chatted, things looked good, and then we swapped some more photos."

She took a few deep breaths, making a pause.

"I met her once we docked. After the first hour, we both knew this wouldn't be anything long-term. We just didn't click. But I have spent the last few weeks talking to myself while sorting rocks, and she was already signed for a month-long haul on a cargo ship. So... we went for it. At least he tried to. My cycle just kicked into gear, I saw that she was almost there too. Then I had to pack my things and get back on board, and the captain didn't want to hear a word. You had no idea how furious I was. They had to send Ottavia to drag me back by force."

Another pause. This one to let the lump in the throat pass. She didn't succeed.

"The first day of the flight, I spent crying in my cabin. The second one I slept through. On the third, I had to walk outside and get some food." She wiped a single tear before continuing. "I knew they didn't do it on purpose; that's just how the job is. But I went around the ship and apologized to everyone, even though they insisted it wasn't necessary. I still think it was; I overreacted and made it everyone else's problem. By then, I was mostly over it, even though my body wasn't. Next, we docked at your station."

Only now did she look at him. A brief eye contact, but a necessary one. He gave her a cautious smile, prompting her to continue. He was listening, he cared, she could go on. She returned the smile and turned back towards the ceiling.

"I don't know why Ivali opened a new position on the ship. We never did that before. We didn't need anyone. By the way, how did you find out about it?"

"I was refreshing the job board every few minutes. Your ship docked much earlier that day, but the posting appeared, I'd say, maybe an hour before your scheduled departure. Probably less."

Kailith thought for a moment.

"I talked with her around that time."

"Maybe she thought you could use some company. Did you ask her about that? After I joined."

"No," she shook her head, forcing a smile, "If she hadn't told me by now, she wouldn't tell me even if I asked. She would perfectly rationalize it in some way, all without a single twitch on her face. That's our captain for you. Making moves in the dark. You get used to seeing everything just work, but you never see the hours she puts in to keep it that way. And don't ever try to compliment her for anything, she will tell you that if you have free time to waste, you could waste it on something more productive."

"That's weird..." Adam thought back to the time he took a bold gamble during the talk with the captain, and this sounded nothing like what happened in his case.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he shook his head, not wanting to admit that he flirted with Ivali, even if it wasn't intentional, "so, you said that something happened after you docked at my station."

"Yeah, you happened." This time, when their eyes met, there were no more tears. "Ivali sent us a note that we will have a new crew member on board, and attached your photo, I'm guessing from your ID."

There was a pause, as if she had already told him everything he should know.

"And?" he asked, making a motion with his hand for her to continue.

"And what?" she looked genuinely surprised by the question.

"That's what I'm asking. You got my photo and what?"

"And I thought you were cute!" She admitted, a bit more loudly than she wanted. "What were you expecting to hear?"

"I don't know?! Not this!" He threw his hands up in protest. "And I am not cute!"

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Right now, you are the cutest angry person I have ever seen!" She poked him in the cheek, then moved her finger back as he tried to swat it away. "Tell me you aren't doing this on purpose!"

"I'm not!" He shouted and tried to stand up to get away from her reach.

But he didn't get far, as he was grabbed and dragged back onto the bed, then mercilessly bound in a soft prison of flesh. The red woman easily pinned his arms to his chest with a bear hug, her thighs almost swallowing his legs between them as she immobilized him further. He was once again stuck, pressed against her supple body.

He struggled. He struggled with all his strength. Even as she kept whispering 'Yes, you are' over and over right into his ear, spurring him to try harder, he didn't even make her flinch. Not even roll to her side, not even to lose a grip on a single one of his limbs for a second.

It took a few minutes before he gave up. He was out of breath, tired, and felt sweat running down his back, and all of this to achieve nothing.

"Is my cute little guy all done now?" She teased him.

He gave it one more try, a pathetic attempt considering the lack of any previous successes, but one that would let him keep at least some of his pride. Yet, he felt his captor slightly relax. Not enough to get free, but enough for her body to again feel like a giant pillow and not a hydraulic press.

"I will let you go now, but please, don't leave." He heard her voice again, now with not a hint of mockery in it, but still quiet. There was a vulnerability that he didn't expect. "Please."

Then, one by one, he got back control over his limbs as Kailith moved slightly away on the bed, creating a bit of distance between them. He didn't move. He didn't want to leave, not only because of her request but also because he didn't want to turn around. So he stayed, motionless.

"I'm sorry." She spoke again, taking time to think about each word. "Sometimes I do things before I think about them. I didn't know it was such a big deal for you, calling you that. I overdid it. Sorry."

"It's fine." He answered after a while and felt the bed shift slightly as she moved behind him. "It's not a big deal, I just don't like it."

"Why?"

"I don't know," he admitted, "it's something used to call girls, not guys."

"Oh, I didn't know that. For us, it's universal, but our species does not have men, so it's not a one-to-one comparison."

"Yeah, makes sense."

There was a moment of silence.

"Can I keep calling you that?"

"Why?" The question caught him off guard. "If you want someone cute, find yourself a girl."

"But the guy I found is cute, and I like him that way. I mean it in the most favorable way I can, and I'm not talking only about how you look. That was my first reaction when I saw your photo, but then we started working together, and you turned out to be everything your picture promised. I don't want to keep looking for someone else."

He felt her hand on his shoulder. Only resting there, not reaching any further, for now. Judging his response. He interlaced her much bigger fingers with his own and pulled her arm further, inviting her to a hug. A few seconds later, the now-familiar feeling of her body pressed against his back.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"I didn't agree to anything," he countered. "I just don't want you to think I'm still mad at you."

"But you were?"

"For a moment."

"Because I called you cute?"

"Yes. Mostly that."

"And the other reason?"

"I knew it wasn't a big deal. And I threw a fit over it. I should have just let it go."

"I will stop if you tell me to stop. It's only fun if we both enjoy it." He didn't answer for a while, so she made it easier for him to consider it. "We can make a deal out of it if you want."

"How?"

"I get to keep calling you cute anytime I want, and you can request something in return," she proposed, "my photos, for example. I could show them to you."

"Sounds like you are getting more out of this than I am."

"Yeah, maybe," she agreed, but already had an idea for a counteroffer, "so how about the real thing?"

She already had his curiosity, but now she had his attention.

"What do you mean?"

"I took the last photo in this room. I taped my tablet to the ceiling to take it. So instead of showing you the photo, I could show you... the live version."

Adam turned around to face her, thankful that she did nothing to stop him this time.

"Only once? Seems unfair if only one of us benefits long-term from it."

"I could be persuaded to more in the future. Maybe even much more."

That was probably the best offer he could get out of her.

"Deal."

She pulled him close and lay on her back, carrying him with her, so now he was on top. Then she released him, moving her arms behind her head, making her shirt taut against her chest, the buttons doing their best to hold it together.

"Feel free then."

"Wait," he sat up on her abs, stunned by the display below him, "seriously?"

"Go for it," she encouraged him.

Despite the dim light in the room, he could see a darker shade of crimson on her cheeks, even on her red skin. He learned to spot them over the last few days. Despite sounding confident, that blush told him everything he needed to know.

"Are you sure?" The question was similar to the one he had already asked, but the tone made it completely different. She squirmed, breaking eye contact.

"Just do it before I change my mind."

"No." He leaned back slightly, surprising her. "You are tense as hell, and I want to know why. I already saw you topless on our first night here, so what's the matter?"

"It's not the same."

"How so?"

"Back then, it was just for fun."

"And now it isn't?"

"Now it's the other type of fun."

"Oh... oooooh," his perspective shifted, understanding the implications.

"Yeah. Now get on with it, my arms are getting stiff."

That was all the convincing he needed.

He leaned forward and reached for the topmost button, unfastening it. The valley of her cleavage was already better than any he had previously seen, but it was about to get even better. He dealt with the two bottom buttons next, leaving only one button left, which struggled to hold the two sides of the shirt together. Until Adam gave it one last pull.

The fabric fell to the sides, like curtains at the theatre, revealing the treasure hidden behind it. Kailith's breasts were a thing of beauty. Judged out of context, they were truly huge, but thanks to the overall size of her body, they suited her perfectly, matching and enhancing her figure, giving it a nearly ideal hourglass shape. Light red, just like the rest of her skin, with nipples of a darker shade. A barely perceptible layer of sweat, undoubtedly from their little struggle, gave her entire torso an alluring, dim shine, which exposed every peak, dip, and curve, of which there were plenty to marvel at.

"Touch them."

He was so focused on the visuals that he almost didn't understand what she said. But once he did, his brain kicked into a higher gear. He looked up at her face, witnessing the battle between bashfulness and desire visible on her face, with the latter gaining advantage with each passing second. Their eyes met, and he could pinpoint the moment when her desire won over any restraint that still held her back.

"I wasn't asking."

Her tone, stern and domineering, sent a shiver down his spine. Her moan, as his hands made the first contact, had an even stronger effect on him, as he felt his pants get uncomfortably tight. But that wasn't important now, he had better things to focus on.

He knew they were soft. His head got to use them as a pillow on more than one occasion, but seeing the supple flesh protruding slightly from between his fingers as he sank his palms into her chest was something he wasn't mentally prepared for. He gave them a light squeeze, the best he could given the sheer size difference, and was rewarded with a soft whine escaping from the aivirians parted lips. She was breathing heavily now, watching his every move.

He got another one out of her when he swiped his thumb up over her hard nipple and one more on the backstroke. They must be really sensitive to get such a response since he barely touched them. He caught himself grinning, suddenly getting an idea. He leaned forward, slowly, giving her time to react if she wanted to stop him.

She didn't.

Not when he kissed her sternum, not when he licked the inner side of her right breast, and not when his lips hovered merely an inch from the dark red prize. Not that he didn't get any reaction out of her. First, there were whimpers, but now she held her breath entirely in anticipation.

He didn't have the heart to keep her waiting.

The moment his tongue made contact, her entire body shook, almost knocking him off balance.

"Oh fuck, yes!"

This was the first time he had heard her cry out in pleasure. A memory he knew would be burned forever into his mind, and one that made him proud. But he wasn't done yet.

His tongue went to work, circling and stroking, sharing the playground with his lips, as he kissed and sucked, guided by her sweet moans and vibrations shooting through her body whenever he was particularly successful.

Suddenly, the contact between his mouth and her nipple broke, as her hand sneaked its way behind his head and effortlessly lifted him by his hair. For a second, he was disappointed, thinking he had done something wrong, but then the hand guided his head to the other breast, and any negative thoughts melted away.

He got back to work, this time under her direct supervision, as she dictated the pace with her hand, pulling his head back and pushing it back in, to the ebb and flow of her pleasure. Slowly but surely, he was getting the hang of it, learning the patterns that gave the best results.

Then he was pulled back once more. Another swap, he thought, but she kept pulling him back. He didn't understand what was happening until she sat up, staring at him from above.

He swallowed nervously but couldn't move. The hand gripping his hair had no give whatsoever. He tested it out of habit and was quickly put in his place when she tilted his head back. Her other hand grabbed both of his arms and pinned them against her chest, leaving him no way to resist her.

She started leaning in closer. He could feel her breath on his face. Hot, heavy, sweet. With an almost flowery scent that he learned to crave. Her lips were slightly parted, ready for what was to come. He wriggled nervously in her lap, trying to find a better sitting position, as something was digging into his tailbone.

She froze in place, eyes wide open.

He was picked up, spun around, and carried to the exit in a span of two seconds. After another two, he was standing outside the break room, not understanding what had just happened.

He turned around, only to see the semi-opaque doors closing, with the young scientist still on the inside.

"Kailith?"

"Sorry, I can't do it." There was a genuine sadness in her voice, but also a hint of fear.

"Do you need some space?" Going back in wasn't an option, so maybe the opposite would help.

"Yes," she replied immediately, "please. Thank you."

"No problem." He took one last look at the doors, seeing her blurred silhouette sitting on the bed, then walked to the decontamination lock and out of the research wing. He purposefully ignored the uncomfortable tightness in his pants, knowing that it would pass with time. During the walk to his cabin, he wondered if the first kiss was such a big deal in aivirian culture. He suspected it wouldn't be her first kiss overall, he couldn't have been that lucky. Maybe just a first kiss with a particular person. But would that be enough to make her act like this?

Twenty minutes later, while watching another episode of what he now knew was a romance, he got a message on his tablet. From Kailith.

'I left it in the break room.'

He connected the dots faster than he could emotionally process them.

It wasn't about the kiss.

He had to wait another ten minutes for the tent in his pants to go down before he left his cabin.

------------|A|------------

The next day started surprisingly average.

He woke up early, went to the lab, and downloaded all the data from the machines that had run overnight. Then Kailith rode up to the room on the freight elevator, bringing four crates of new samples with her. He could operate most of the equipment on his own by now, so they wordlessly shared the workload between them, going through the same motions as yesterday.

Adam felt there was some tension between them, but there was an unspoken agreement not to talk about anything unrelated to work before they were finished with the tests for the day, so he didn't bring up the subject for now. She kept her end of the deal as well, but he could tell she had a harder time not letting it affect her. Stealing glances, working on the machines in the same section where he was, with an occasional random body contact when she passed him, which she played out as an accident.

But even with those distractions, her efficiency was spectacular. They had two crates of rocks to take care of each, but he barely started working on his second one as Kailith was finished with both of hers.

"Do you need some help with those?" She asked, grabbing one sample from the pile.

"No, I can handle..."

"I will help."

That was the end of the conversation. He didn't mind the help, to be honest, but her enthusiasm was unexpected. There were questions he needed to ask once they finished working.

An hour later, they double-checked if every machine was set up correctly and started to clean up. Well, at least Adam did. Kailith took a passing glance at the screens in her immediate vicinity, then leaned against the wall near the break room.

"Hey, do you want to watch a movie with me?" She pulled out her tablet and looked at him expectantly. "I even have a few favorites you could pick from. Or we could continue the show we were watching last time in your cabin."

"Yeah, sure," he stopped wiping the steel table as he answered. "Just let me finish here..."

"Come on, we can do this later," she rolled her eyes, her impatience clear as day, "we earned a break."

This wasn't normal. She never skipped the clean-up. From the first time he set foot in the research wing, she always told him to take care of the equipment and the general state of the lab. That included not leaving any loose samples in the open and getting the dust off of any work surfaces. A little work now saved a lot of maintenance in the long run, or so she said.

He threw the mostly clean rag into the recycler and saw her smile as he did that. But he wasn't going to play her game just yet, and leaned back against the table, crossing his arms.

"What are you doing?" She asked, taken aback by his posture.

"I was about to ask the same," he replied, pointing his thumb back at the lab. "You were acting weird all day. What's up with that?"

"I don't know what you mean," she lied, trying to deflect his accusation.

"At least tell me if it has anything to do with what happened yesterday." The change in her expression made it obvious he was on a good track. "Because I thought a lot about it since then."

"You too, huh?" She confirmed his suspicion. "Yeah, it's kind of about that."

"Kind of?"

She squirmed in place, uncomfortable with how the conversation was going.

"Can we talk about it in the break room? I will explain everything."

His first reaction was to suspect some kind of a trick, but then he took another look at her. There were no signs of previous excitement left. Maybe he had misjudged her intentions from the start.

"Sure, let's do that."

She walked in first and left the doors open. He stepped through and closed them behind him, at the same time noticing a small change in the room itself. There was a pillow on the bed, even though the large scientist tried to hide it behind her. He knew she saw him notice it, but he didn't bring it up. Instead, he grabbed the one chair that was in the room and sat on it, facing the woman on the bed. He saw her lips press together tightly as she watched him do it. Maybe he made a mistake, but he could fix that later. Hopefully.

"So, about yesterday," she began, only to backtrack immediately. "Actually, I should start even earlier. The first day that we started doing... this," she nodded towards two empty thermoses in a wall cutout serving as a shelf, "I asked Mia if she could give me something to read about humans. To learn about you. You know, after the whole incident on your first night, I didn't want to do something like that again. So I started with some tips on your culture and customs, but everything was either the same as we do or poorly explained if it was different. I gave up on that and started reading about anatomy instead."

Adam mentally scolded himself for not doing the same for aivirians. He was on a ship full of them, and he completely ignored the issue. It was a good thing that at least one of them took it seriously.

"We do not have men as you do in our species, so I started with this," she continued. "I also asked Mia for some help since she is an expert on this subject, and she mentioned that you two talked a bit about the... relationships."

She went silent for almost a minute.

"Look, I don't know how to say it," finally, she gathered the courage to make things clear, "but I think it would be best if you went into cryo."

This hit him like a sledgehammer.

"What?" Adam felt his face get warm as his heart picked up the pace. "Why?"

"I like you, okay?" Kailith confessed, then repeated it, putting more emphasis on it. "I really like you."

"So what's the problem here?"

"The whole thing with... your food and what we did yesterday. It makes it hard for me to..." There was something she wanted to say, but didn't know how. "My cycle is making it difficult..."

"Just say it, whatever it is." All the skirting around the subject was making him nervous. "I can't help if I don't know what the problem is."

"If we can't be... together, then I at least want to keep you as a friend," she babbled, "and that isn't possible with how things are right now."

Adam needed a moment to process it. At least he tried to, but he couldn't piece it all together.

"I mean, I didn't really think about us... together, that is... yet." He stumbled over words, trying to make a coherent sentence from all the loose thoughts. "But I... Is that why you pushed me out yesterday? Because we were going too far?"

"No. I mean, yes. Kind of. I already told you how my last date went, and I went so long without any kind of partner, and now you come along, and I'm trying not to get you involved in this, but I fail day after day," she blurted out on a single breath, "and I don't know how to keep it friendly between us when my body is screaming for more."

"So you were holding back all this time?" The situation was clearing a little, but there was still a crucial piece missing. "I mean, sexually."

"Oh my god, yes," she fell back onto the bed, exhausted after keeping it hidden for so long. "I don't want to ruin it, and I almost did yesterday."

"Ruin it? You ruined it by pushing me out!" He burst, throwing his hands up. "That was the hottest shit that has ever happened to me, and you thought I didn't like it?"

"You liked it?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Yes!"

"Even this?" She asked, cupping her crotch, making the bulge in her pants stand out.

This gave him a pause. Right, that was also a thing that happened. It played such a small role during the whole thing that he kind of forgot about it when mentally playing back the events. At least now he has finally got his confirmation.

"That's what I thought," she commented sadly, seeing him stumble. "As I said, I've read about your species, and I've talked with Mia. I know this won't work between us. That's why I tried not to go too far. Great success on my side, huh?"

No more running from it. This was the moment in which he could make or break the rest of his time onboard the ship and, more importantly, his future relationship with Kailith. It seemed like a difficult decision, but he had made up his mind about it days ago. Not that he was in any way prepared for it. But he would figure it out along the way.

"Who said it wouldn't work?"

She lifted her head from the bed, looking at him, surprised.

"Mia told me you liked girls," she explained, unsure if he meant what she thought he meant, "so I assumed..."

"Let me guess, you assumed she was talking about the human girls thing, and she didn't bother to clarify what she meant? Because from what I saw already, you both have this weird relationship, where you love to make things more difficult for each other for no reason?"

Kailith kept silent, mentally playing back the whole conversation and wondering why she hadn't thought about it. This was such an obvious oversight now that he said it.

"Yeah, I do like girls, very much so," he nodded, going back to her earlier question, "and over the last few days, I learned that I like them taller than myself and that I like them handsy, and flirty, and teasing and many more things I thought I wouldn't like."

He felt himself blush, but the way her eyes widened as he spoke gave him the necessary courage to keep going.

"And you did a good job of teaching me so far, so..." he cringed at how corny he made it sound, "you know, I'm still open to learning new things."

She got off the bed, never breaking eye contact, and walked right up to him. As he was sitting in the chair, it suddenly dawned on him how small he was when she put even a little effort into taking advantage of it. The fact that his face was now almost exactly at the level of her crotch did nothing to calm down his racing heart.

"I'm going to give you three chances to back out," Kailith stated, pulling up her finger as a warning when he tried to interject. "You keep quiet until I finish talking. If this is some sick way to tease me, here is your first chance. So, is it?"

"No." It came out barely audible, so he tried again, this time with better success, "No, it's not a joke."

"Good, one down. Next, I had my last partner literally years ago. If we are going to do this, I won't be satisfied after only a few days." She lost her composure a bit here, remembering that humans did not follow the same arousal cycle. Her eyes darted to the side as if looking for a way to proceed. "I admit, I didn't think this one through."

"Just so you know, you are threatening me with a good time," he encouraged her, now a little less intimidated by her towering over him. "If you thought that would make me back off, then I'm sorry to disappoint."

"So, is that a yes?"

"Yes, as in I still want to do it? Obviously."

"You are awfully eager to cut off any escape routes."

"My mom didn't raise no coward."

"Make sure to send her my thanks once we get back in the comms range of some station," Kailith smirked.

"Will do," he agreed, glad that he managed to make her relax a bit. "I think I have one more way out, so what's the last question?"

She gave him a look he couldn't quite decipher. Then she sat on the edge of the bed and patted the spot beside her.

"Come here."

He did, sitting where she wanted him to.

"Good. Now put your hands together."

"Like this?" He asked, and the answer was most likely yes, since instead of saying anything, she grabbed both of his wrists with one hand and dragged them both further onto the bed.

"Whoa!" He realized she put them in the same position as they were yesterday, but with their roles swapped. He was on his back, with his arms pinned above his head and feeling the substantial weight of her ass resting on his thighs. "You could have asked. I'm..."

She silenced him, pressing a single finger against his lips.

"Shhh, you had your fun yesterday. Now it's my turn."

The lone finger left his lips, but not his body, tracing down his chin, then his neck and chest, until it reached the bottom of his T-shirt. Caught as he was, he could only squirm as her hand slid underneath it, exploring his body. He wasn't particularly ticklish, but he instinctively tried to get away from her fingertips.

"What are you doing?" He asked after a while of enduring her caresses.

"I was curious if you had hair on your torso as well," she explained, looking at his exposed belly, "and I told you to be quiet."

"Hair on... why wouldn't I?"

"It's a human thing. Aivirians only have hair on their heads, didn't you notice?" She pinched the side of his stomach, making him flinch. "Now, be quiet."

He hadn't noticed it before. Maybe his brain saw a red skin and decided that that's enough differences and there was no point in searching for more.

"I also have hair somewhere else if you want to check," he teased.

"I'm sure you do." Kailith sighed, gently scraping her nails along his skin as she removed her hand from under his shirt. "But for some reason, I now lost interest in it. My current fascination is teaching bratty boys a lesson since they can't keep their mouths shut."

Adam suddenly felt very vulnerable. He chuckled nervously, testing if the iron grip that held his wrists had any slack.

"Hey, I was just joking. You know that, right?"

"Oh, don't worry," she leaned closer, nibbling at his neck between words, "I passed a first-aid course a few years ago, you will be fine."

"That's not reassuring in any way." He pulled once more against her grip, which earned him a pitiful smile, and one more hand that joined in securing his arms, snuffing out any hopes of getting free.

"I can prove it if you are not convinced." She whispered into his ear.

"No, thank..." The words got stuck in his throat as she licked his earlobe.

"I insist." Her face now hovered only an inch above his own, making the air heavy with the sweet, flowery scent. "Let's start with mouth-to-mouth. I was always good at it."

Their lips connected, and Adam forgot about every worry he had.

It started slow, a single kiss, then a pause, breaking the contact. Kailith let out a deep sigh, having finally gotten what she yearned for for so long, then went back for more. This one was bolder, more passionate. They studied every inch of their lips, not leaving even a speck of skin dry. By the time they broke the kiss, both of them were breathing heavily.

"That's not how I remember being taught to do first-aid."

"Is that a complaint?"

"Not at all."

"Good," Kailith shifted her position, now lying down on him, pressing him into the bed with her full body weight, "because I want to see how much more you can handle."

She dived back for another kiss before he had a chance to object. Their lips created an airtight seal as she pressed into him harder. Then he felt something else pressing in as her tongue slid into his mouth.

She tasted like berries. He loved it from the first try.

The struggle for dominance was a quick one. In short order, she had his organ pacified by her larger, and much longer one, which coiled around, marking everything it touched with her sweet saliva. His mouth was full, but it kept coming, filling him up more and more. Then he felt it slide in further, making his eyes shoot wide open. He tried struggling against her, but one of her hands moved to his head, immobilizing it, making sure there was no escaping it.

Kailith took care to avoid contact with his uvula, pressing down onto his tongue with her own. It cautiously inched inwards with its inhuman length, reaching the back of his mouth in short order. Then she made a pause, judging his reaction. Her little human tried getting himself free at first, but understanding the futility of his situation, he resigned himself to focusing on keeping his breathing in check. She gave him a silent praise in her head.

Once more, she pressed further, beginning to slide it down his throat. She felt the front of his neck give way slightly as her dexterous muscle made its way down. She wished she could see it from the other perspective, curious if the bulge would be visible from the outside. She could hear Adam's breath starting to get ragged, with her blocking most of his airway, but he was doing so, so very well, and it would be a waste to turn back now, as she still had more to give.

Until she felt his throat contract in a heaving motion. The thicker part of her tongue, now grinding his uvula against the top of his palate, proved too much for him. She pulled her slimy invader out in one swift motion, letting him take a proper inhale, the first one he was granted in a while. He greedily took a few more, steadying his breath.

"What the fuck was that?!" He gasped out, demanding answers.

"Oh, just a small punishment for not shutting up when I told you to," she smiled innocently, "but I think it ended up more like a reward than anything else."

"Reward?" He repeated, accusingly. "You almost suffocated me."

"Almost. The keyword here. And it's no big deal, I know how to do the proper mouth-to-mouth anyway. And you can deny all you want, but this..." her hand slid between their bodies and squeezed his erection through his pants, "... is telling me everything I need to know. You were poking me in my stomach with it the whole time. And you didn't even notice when I let you go."

He blushed, turning his head away as he realized his hands were free. He completely missed it somewhere along the way.

"It's a natural reaction." He defended himself.

"To get hard while deepthroating someone's tongue?" She laughed, lightheartedly mocking him. "Is it like a human thing, or is it just you?"

His face got so red he couldn't bring himself to answer. She laughed again, this time genuinely amused.

"But no, seriously, I didn't think you could take it so far. Or, at all," she admitted. "I wanted to make you struggle a bit, so I slid it in further, but you took it like a champ, and I'm not the one to back down when I see a challenge. And fuck me, you held out for so long. I'm kind of curious now. Got any spicy story for me?"

"My first trip off the planet," he explained, "the cheapest one I could find. They only had paste on board, and I didn't have the implant back then. So for two months, I had to take supplement pills every day, and they were the size of my thumb. By the end of the flight, I could pop them like candy."

"Ugh, I thought it would be something more sexy." She commented, disappointed.

"Were you expecting me to tell you that I had a girlfriend who slammed my throat with her tongue daily?"

"Well, you do now," she pointed out, leaning in for another kiss, only to feel his hand gently push against her, denying her access. Her brow furrowed, seeing his hesitation. "Just a simple kiss this time, I promise."

His hand retreated, but she could sense that he did it despite not being fully convinced. She was fairly certain it wasn't because he didn't like it. Maybe he didn't like the fact that he enjoyed it. She would make him confess later, at his own pace.

"Good boy." She gave him a quiet praise before pressing her lips onto his.

This time, she took it slow but no less sensual. There was no battle for dominance, only a deep desire to enjoy his intimate presence. Her tongue slipped in, but she kept it restrained, not wanting to overwhelm him like the last time, but to make sure he also enjoyed it. As she felt him relax and eventually melt into her embrace, she knew she had succeeded.

She also knew that it was time for the last question.

She broke the kiss and got off of him, sitting on the edge of the bed. She tried to prepare herself mentally for this, but that didn't make it any easier.

"Did I do something wrong?" Adam asked, suddenly left out.

"No, everything was perfect," she said, standing up, facing away from him, "but I have one more question to ask."

"Which is?" He saw her take off her shirt and throw it on the ground. He blinked as everything clicked into place. "Oh, right." He sat up and moved back on the bed, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes. "I'm not looking."

"No, that's the point," she objected, glancing at him, "I want you to look."

"Yeah, sure," he nodded, trying to find a comfortable sitting position. "Sorry, I know..."

"Stop. Don't talk." She turned her head back, too shy to maintain eye contact. "Just watch, okay?"

He confirmed with a quiet mhm, not wanting to distract her further.

Kailith hooked her thumbs around the waistband of her pants and started pulling them down. There was a bit of struggle at the widest point, halfway through her buttocks, but once she forced them through, the rest of the way was easy. And as she bent forward to guide them to the ground, the view alone was almost enough to make Adam forget about the main part that was still to come.

He of course knew that she had a fantastic ass, there was no doubt about it. But seeing it finally out, covered only by her panties, was a spectacular sight. She kept her legs close together, and as she leaned down, he could witness it in all of its red glory, simply begging for a good slap.

"All good so far?" The scientist teased, fully aware of her effect on him, even without looking back.

"Ye... yeah," his throat got so dry he had to swallow before he could give a full answer.

He saw her slip her thumbs under the sides of the underwear, and he expected to get a repeat of the previous show, but instead, she pulled them forward and down. The back of her panties still sat on her waist, but the front dipped down. Dangerously far down. To the point where he was ready for the waistband to snap at any moment.

Kailith stood there for a few seconds, looking down.

"So, I'm going to turn around now." She spoke with an unsteady voice. "And if... if you don't like it, you can just tell me, okay? I'm not... I mean... just... ugh."

This was it.

Whatever she tried to say, maybe it wouldn't be a big deal if he didn't like it, maybe she wouldn't mind, but it was obviously a lie. Adam first saw her face, tilted down and to the side, still avoiding eye contact. The darker shade of red on her cheeks was easily visible even from a distance. Her left hand rested on her breasts, doing a mediocre job of covering them. Her right hand went down, between her legs, where... where...

Where he saw for the first time what he had heard about so many times, but mentally was not prepared to believe it.

She had a cock.

A huge one.

A pillar of flesh, slightly darker in tone compared to the rest of her body, easily the length of his forearm and as thick as his wrist, if not more. She tried to keep it down with her right hand, but it was a futile effort. The beast was throbbing in need with her every heartbeat, pushing against her hand, and winning, as she let it go, understanding she had no hopes of covering it now.

Rising even higher now, it was nearly horizontal, a feat considering its obvious weight. Pointed right at him, it uncovered two balls resting against her thighs, pushed forward by the waistband of her panties, each one must have been the size of his fist. And judging by the clear liquid already dripping from the tip of her dick, they were ready to go.

"Say something," Kailith mumbled. She probably wanted it to sound like an order, but it came out more like a plea.

"It... " Adam was surprised himself by his reaction, "... suits you."

"Does that mean you like it?" There was a spark of hope in her eyes.

"I think so?" He tried not to give any definitive answers for now, even though he could feel his arousal climbing to unbearable heights. "This is new territory for me."

Kailith smiled at him and took a step forward, closing the distance to the bed, then sat near the edge, sideways to him. She slid her panties off, throwing them to the side, before moving in closer. In her new position, her massive prick stood almost straight up, taunting him.

"You didn't take your eyes off of it even once," she voiced, amused. "Are you sure you're still not convinced?"

"I... " It took all of his willpower not to backtrack on his previous statement.

Up close, he could take a better look at it, and despite the size still being intimidating, he noticed more curious details. First of all, unlike human ones, it seemed to be a pure muscle, not covered in skin at all, or at least not in the way that it worked for humans. At the same time, it was smooth, almost featureless, except for the swollen head, which leaked a steady stream of clear liquid that dripped down its underside.

"Do you want to touch it?" She asked again, moving her hips side to side, making her cock sway hypnotically. "I know you want to."

"I don't think..."

"Yes. Yes, you do," she corrected him, her dominant side slowly returning as she saw his resistance crumble away, "come here."

He did, moving like in a trance. She pulled him closer until he sat just beside her, their bodies pressed against one another.

"Look," she whispered, wrapping her hand around her cock, and giving it a light stroke, "look how hard you've made me."

Her hand traveled up and down, up and down, getting slick with her precum and spreading it all over her prick. Her pace was slow, almost lazy. But he couldn't keep his eyes away, transfixed by it. Everything about her was exaggerated, from her size to her sexuality. And now, seeing her in action, his brain was assaulted with stimuli that shouldn't be humanly possible, but he had a front-row seat to experience them, thanks to her alien nature. The view of her huge shaft, the quiet, wet sound of her hand jerking it, and the overwhelming flowery scent that filled the room.

"Honestly, I thought you would do something by now." Her voice snapped him back to reality.

"What?"

"You have been staring at it for a few minutes now," she explained with a slight worry in her voice, but she hadn't stopped stroking herself. "If that's too much for the first time, you can leave, and I will finish by myself... like always." There was a hint of grief in the last few words.

"Yeah, that's a lot." His mind finally cleared enough to resume rational thinking. "I think I need to sleep on it."

She sighed and stopped masturbating.

"Sure, I understand," she said with genuine care, helping him off the bed. "Thank you. For everything."

"Don't mention it."

He started walking towards the door, but hesitated as he grabbed the handle.

"One more thing before you go," she seized the opportunity, "could you pass me the thermos? It's on the shelf near you."

He glanced to the left and spotted two of them in a covert cutout in the wall, which served as a storage space. He took one out and walked back to the bed, taking one more look at the red beauty sprawled on it.

"Thanks, cutie," she teased him, remembering their earlier agreement. "It shouldn't take long."

He nodded his head, letting her take the thermos from him. There was something he wanted to do. He didn't know what it was, but the feeling was still there, and it was getting stronger by the second.

"Does it help?" He asked, making her tilt her head questioningly. "I mean, when you have someone close, does it help?"

"Oh, that, of course!" She confirmed, giving herself a few light strokes. "I already told you, our bodies react very strongly to the presence of other people. That's how we get the cycle going in the first place. But it's boring to explain, and I kind of have my hands full here." She joked, but stopped laughing as she saw him not react to it. "Is something wrong? Why are you standing there like that?"

"Move back."

"What?"

"Move back," he repeated, "lean against the wall."

"Okay..." She didn't know where this was going, but was smart enough not to ask questions, "like this?"

She half lay, half sat, with her shoulder blades resting against the wall and a pillow under her lower back.

"Yeah," he nodded, getting onto the bed himself, "don't move."

"What are you... ooooh."

Adam swung his leg over her hip, carefully not to touch her, then sat down on her abs, leaning forward into her and wrapping his arms around her torso. He pressed his face against her neck, trying not to think about what he was doing.

"What's the big idea, little guy?" She chuckled, running her free hand up and down his spine, knowing that she had him.

"I... want to help," he mumbled, "but... "

"Shhhh," she silenced him, pushing his head into her neck, "It's all right. I appreciate it. We can do this at your pace. You staying here is already more than I could have asked for."

He felt her kiss him, and then her body started to gently rock back and forth as she went back to pleasuring herself with one hand behind his back, in a literal sense. The other one was still scratching his back, melting away his tension. This went on for a few minutes until Kailith broke the silence.

"Can you do one more thing for me?"

All she got in response was a grunt, which she took as permission to go on.

"Take off your shirt."

Another grunt, this time a questioning one.

"I want to feel your skin against mine."

There was no response for a while, so she pulled her hand away from his spine. This gave her another grumble, this one part angry, part demanding.

"If you want me to continue, take off your shirt," she whispered right into his ear. "Imagine how good it will feel against your bare skin."

She felt his shiver as she said that and had to bite her tongue not to laugh at his reaction. Finally, Adam leaned back a bit, just enough to get rid of his clothes, threw them to the side, and moved his head back to its hiding spot against her neck.

At least, that was his plan.

The hand that was supposed to get back to scratching him instead ended up on the back of his head, taking hold of his hair and pulling him back. Before he had a chance to protest, she sealed his lips with her own, invading his mouth with her tongue.

She didn't go easy on him. Not this time. Not when she was so close. Feeling his naked chest against her breasts, tasting him, and hearing him struggle to endure her probing his throat was finally pushing her close to the edge. And this time, the first time since what felt like an eternity, it was going to be a proper orgasm, not the bleak imitation she had been bringing herself to these past few days.

She let go of his head, knowing he wouldn't dare to pull back, and blindly searched around for the thermos. She found it, thankfully, and placed it beside her leg. There was still a bit to go. A tiny bit more, before she crossed the edge, and she wanted to get every single ounce of pleasure she could out of it. And so the other hand joined the first, immediately getting slick and matching the tempo.

Kailith moaned into his mouth, the stimulation slowly overwhelming her mind. Adam tried to pull his head back, surprised, but she wouldn't let him. Her entire torso snapped forward, pushing him back until he sat merely an inch from the base of her throbbing cock, his head facing up to meet her own, now towering over him.

The weight of his body on her hips was the final straw. She grabbed the thermos with one hand and positioned it against the tip of her dick, while her other hand worked double time. The wet, slick sound was now loud enough to rival Adam's gagging, as she slammed her tongue down his throat, his tilted back head making it all too easy for her to go as deep as she wanted.

Her orgasm hit her like a sledgehammer, her whole body tensing up in ecstatic spasms, her back arching forward, and her legs pulled close to her chest. The thermos grew heavier and heavier, and twice she caught herself losing focus, as the warm liquid dripped down her fingers after spilling from the side. Finally, after days of disappointment, she reached a true peak.

This was all she ever needed. Bliss.

Until she felt something tapping against the side of her chest. Her eyes went wide open as she realized that Adam was suffocating on her lap. She pulled her tongue back and immediately heard a loud heaving breath.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she panicked, her instinct telling her that she had almost killed her lover. "Are you okay?"

Her one hand was still holding the filled thermos, so she patted his back with the other one, despite knowing that there was nothing for him to spit out.

"Yeah," his voice was hoarse, "I'm alive, I think."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she hugged him tightly, squeezing his body into her chest, "This was sooo fucking good, I lost control over myself for a second there."

"A second? Try a minute, I almost blacked out."

Kailith blinked twice, dumbfounded.

"I kinda lost track of time," she giggled, still riding the euphoric high after her orgasm. "Was it really a full minute?"

"I didn't exactly time it," he answered, getting himself out of her hug, "but all I can say is it's not normal to cum for that long."

"Actually, it is," she beamed, seeing his red face and giving him a quick peck on the lips, making him blush even harder, "for a starter, that is. Give me a few days, and I will show you what a real orgasm looks like."

"Say what now?" It was his turn to act surprised.

"What? Do you think that jerking myself off would be the peak of pleasure? Please, don't play dumb."

He didn't know what to say to that, but she didn't give him the time to think about it anyway.

"Come on now, get off me," she smacked his ass, breaking him out of his stupor, "This was a long enough break, and we have work to do still."

Adam crawled off her lap, sitting down on the bed beside her. Kailith stood up, put away the thermos on the desk, and stretched, getting the feeling back into her limbs after lying for so long. She arched her back, pulling her arms up, the previous shyness nowhere to be seen. Her nude body was once more presented to him in its full glory, this time with a thin layer of sweat, which added a delicate shine to her red skin. As perfect as ever, the only difference from before was her dick, which now hang down, only half-erect now, but still impossibly big.

"Fuck, that was good," she breathed out, relaxed, "you have no idea how much I needed it, sweety. Don't just sit there; stand up, get the blood flowing."

He did, feeling ridiculously awkward in the situation. He was still mostly clothed, while she was fully naked, with her still wet junk hanging out in the open, but somehow, she made him the self-conscious one. The ease with which she handled her nudity made him feel as if he was breaking the social norm by still having his pants on. This was such a stark difference from how it all started.

"Where did I leave the towel?" Kailith asked herself, looking around. "I forgot to bring one, didn't I? Great."

She grabbed the cloth she spotted lying on the bed and started to wipe herself with it, but saw Adam staring at her with an open mouth. She took another look at what she was holding, and her face went even redder than it usually was.

"Oh my god. I'm so sorry," she handed him back his T-shirt, "I'm... I'm still not thinking right. I didn't do it on purpose, I swear."

Adam held it in front of himself to see the damage, the entire front of the clothing was wet, mostly with a slick, clear liquid, but here and there were white spots of her cum.

"It will wash off, I'm sure." Kailith still tried to fix her mistake. "You have spares, right? Look, I'm gonna finish up here by myself. You can go back to your cabin and get changed."

All good ideas, but he still had to get to his room first. He sighed resignedly, put the shirt on, then took a step back.

"How bad is it?" He asked, spreading his arms out.

"Not that bad," she lied, "it's barely visible."

He groaned, feeling the damp cloth clinging to his chest.

"So, I'll see you tonight?" The scientist inquired.

"Tonight?"

"Yeah. You know, to watch the TV show?"

He could see on her face that this was just a convenient excuse, but he didn't mind, so he played along.

"Sure, see you then." He reached for the door handle but heard her clear her throat. He turned around.

"Aren't you forgetting about something?" She mentioned innocently, nodding her head towards the thermos on the desk.

Oh, that. The whole reason they were doing it. How could he forget?

He picked it up, getting his fingers wet from the spills on the sides, slightly concerned with the amount of cum filling it. In the past few days, he had never seen it filled more than halfway, but now the warm fluid almost reached the rim. He gave it a gentle swirl, wondering if the clear, oily liquid would separate as it did before, but that would probably take some time.

"Well?" Kailith asked, standing uncomfortably close and staring intently at him. "What are you waiting for?"

"Nothing..."

She pushed him back, gently, so he wouldn't spill even a drop until he met the wall behind him. Her hands, to either side of him, were now blocking any escape route he had, not touching him, not yet anyway, but the message was clear. It was her decision when he could leave.

"Then drink it." Her voice had a dangerous amount of authority to it, this wasn't a suggestion, but an order. "I want to watch you swallow it all down."

She placed one finger at the bottom of the thermos and helped him lift it up.

"You have done this so many times," she reminded him, her naked body taking all of his personal space. "No reason to be shy now, right?"

The rim of the container inched closer and closer to his lips.

"Do it for me. I want to see it. Please."

It made contact, despite her not guiding him anymore, and once he got a taste of the warm liquid, it was all over for him. Closing his eyes, he took the first gulp, then the next one, then one more, and then he lost count.

It filled his mouth, overwhelming his taste buds with its sweet, fruity flavor, one that he learned to crave over the last few days. Now, however, with how warm and fresh it was, it tasted even better than before, making him greedily swallow even faster. But the flood of the white fluid soon proved too much for him, as one mistimed mouthful made him choke and forced him to pause to catch a breath.

"Oh no, you don't," Kailith put her finger back on the bottom of the thermos and tilted it even further, making her cum start to spill around the corners of his mouth, "no breaks for you until you get it all down."

Having no other option, he suppressed his gag and frantically continued to swallow, battling against the rising tide of the warm liquid that already covered his upper lip and was getting dangerously close to reaching his nostrils.

And just as he was reaching his limit, he swallowed one last time, fully expecting another fill, but none came. The thermos was empty.

"Such a good boy," she praised him, patting his head, "come here."

He didn't even get to steady his breath before he felt something else touch his lips, and her tongue forced its way inside him. Thankfully, she wasn't planning on keeping it there for long.

Just as quickly as it made its way in, it slipped out, and she started licking his face, cleaning him up. By the time she got the last droplet, they were both panting from barely contained arousal.

Kailith pulled her head back, and for the first time, Adam could actually see her tongue. Funny how he had it inside him so many times but never got to look at it.

At least not when she had it out, like now. It was crimson-black, impossibly long, and dripping with the saliva and cum she collected from his face. It looked more like a prehensile tentacle with the amount of control she had over it.

Their eyes met, and in an instant, he knew what she wanted from him, despite her not being able to talk. He opened his mouth and saw her lips curl in a grin, the best she could.

This time, she went deep.

She pushed forward, burying her length in his throat until their lips met. She gave him a perverse kiss and started pulling herself out. Slowly. Letting him suck every single drop she collected for him.

Then she was out, and he swallowed one last time.

Maybe he didn't do it consciously, but only to make it easier for himself to breathe, but she took great pleasure in seeing his open mouth completely clean. Proof of a job well done.

"My god, you are perfect." Kailith whispered to herself, before cheering out, "That was so fucking hot! Where were you my whole life?!"

She went in for a hug but stopped herself at the last moment, realizing that her body also deemed it hot and reacted accordingly, now sporting another erection.

"Okay, okay," she took a step back, giving him some space, but not the time to say anything, "calm down, Kailith, calm down, don't ruin this."

She closed her eyes and took a few controlled breaths, trying to unsuccessfully get her cock to behave.

Adam, at the same time, was coming to terms with experiencing more things in a short amount of time than he was able to deal with emotionally, which, in itself, was becoming a regular occurrence since he boarded the ship. Taking the tried and tested approach, he completely ignored all the confusing, contradictory, and arousing thoughts and walked up to the red scientist while she wasn't looking.

Kailith felt herself being grabbed behind the neck, pulled down, and then kissed on the cheek.

Before her brain put what happened together, Adam was already standing in the open doors.

"I'll see you tonight?" He asked, walking out.

"Yeah..."

He closed the doors behind him.

There was a silence as he walked to the airlock. Silence, as he pressed on the panel to the side. Only the hiss of hydraulics as the front gate opened. He walked inside and pressed a button to begin the decontamination cycle. The gate started to close.

And just before it formed an airtight seal, he heard the happiest squeal in his life.

------------|A|------------

Two hours later, Adam heard the knocking on his door.

He set his tablet aside and stood up from the desk, walking to the control panel on the wall. There was no need to ask who was on the other side.

"Ugh, finally." Kailith walked in, massaging her neck. "Sorry it took so long; one of the tests failed, and I had to set everything up again."

"You could have sent me a message; I would've helped," Adam responded, sitting back down and picking up the device once more. "It's not like I had anything better to do."

"Not a chance," she objected outright. "I told you I'd finish up. No way I would back down on it. And by the way, if it weren't for you, I would have to do it all by myself anyway, and I would still be stuck in the lab for at least a few hours."

"You're welcome, I guess," he gave a brief smile, tapping on the screen in his hands, "so watching TV shows after work is not something you usually do?"

"Never had much time for it." The scientist admitted, walking in closer and looking over his shoulder. "What are you reading?"

"Oh, this?" He tilted the tablet so she could see it better. "Just a ship's documentation I found in the local data bank. Great stuff. I'm halfway through the propulsion chapter, and I haven't understood a single thing."

"You can ask Ottavia about it if you want. She knows it in and out like the back of her hand. No guarantee she will want to talk about it, though."

"Why? Company secrets? Afraid I would sell the design?"

"No, she just doesn't talk much. I mean, I spend a lot of time with machines, and it drives me insane if I don't talk to someone after more than a day, but she is on another level completely. She probably spent more time with tools in her hands than I've been alive."

"Really? I got the impression that everyone on this ship kinda lives their own life. Aside from Ivali and Miantaria, I've barely met anyone else since I got here."

"Nah, everyone is just busy now." Kailith walked back to the door and started taking off the lab coat she was wearing. "We are still in the approach phase, and the girls have their hands full. That's the reason why you started your work with me and not someone else. That's the official version, at least."

"So we are still going with the conspiracy theory that the captain set us up?" Adam finished bookmarking the pages he still wanted to read later and set the tablet down. "The amount of work she would need to put in, to..."

He didn't finish, as he saw Kailith standing near the entrance, naked from the waist up. Not that the pants left much to the imagination, with the prominent bulge clearly visible.

"I had to leave the shirt in the lab," she explained, smirking innocently, "but I see you don't mind."

"No, not at all," he answered, flustered, "just wasn't expecting that, that's all."

"No need to be shy about it," she walked to the bed and lay down, "I like how you look at me."

"I'll keep that in mind," he hoped that was a tactful response, "so, do you remember on which episode we stopped last time?"

"Does it matter?"

"What? Of course, it does!"

"Yeah? Tell me, who is the main character?"

He thought for a moment. Then smiled.

"Okay, fair, but that's a trick question." Maybe she had a point. "There's like five of them who could be the main guy."

"Main girl, you mean." She corrected him.

"Yeah, that. Same thing," he shrugged, not wanting to let her win, "you know what I mean."

"I'll keep that in mind," she mimicked his last response with a sly grin. "Now come here, I need something small to cuddle with."

"Hey! I'm an average height, thank you very much."

"For a human, sure. Now stop whining, grab the tablet, and come to bed."

There was no point in arguing any further. He was also tired already, and her breasts were truly the greatest pillow he could dream of.

"Episode ten is marked as halfway watched," he noted, scrolling through the list of videos on his device. "Do we continue from where we left off or go from the start again?"

"I think I remember what happened in this one, so we can continue as it is."

"We can watch something else if you want," he proposed, "you know, something we both haven't watched yet."

"No, don't worry about it," she wriggled around him, getting into a more comfortable position, "let's finish this one, and then we can find something else."

As she moved he clearly felt her bulge poke against his ass once or twice, but thankfully she had it under control, and clearly planned on keeping it that way, judging by the amount of effort she put into finding a comfortable position for them both. He remembered the talk they had earlier today, what she told him about restraining herself, and it seemed she wasn't all talk with how much care she put into making him comfortable around her. But on the other hand, she walked into his room basically topless. Maybe this was also a cultural difference, and he was overreacting. No, no way. She knew what she was doing.

"Are you going to play it or not?" Her voice tore him from his thoughts.

"Oh, yeah, sorry." He tapped the screen, and the video resumed.

They both lay in silence, staring at the screen, watching the characters talk and argue, promise, and lie, and all the other things typical for TV shows, but neither of them paid any real attention to it.

"What were you thinking about?" Kailith asked after a while.

"Huh?"

"Earlier. You were thinking about something."

"Oh, nothing much."

"Tell me."

"It's nothing."

"Tell me," she pressed further, not letting him off the hook.

"Just... you," he confessed, "or us, really. Since there is 'us' now, I guess."

"You don't sound very happy about it," she noticed, concerned.

"No, no, I am. But..."

"But it's not a normal relationship in any way you imagined it?" She helped, seeing how he struggled to put it into words.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Listen, I know I am not a human..."

"No, that's not it," he interrupted her, locking the tablet and pushing it away. "Look, I wasn't ready for it. At all. You are so out of my league that I didn't even know the scale went that high. Maybe it's because I have a thing for tall girls, but no human I know can compare to you. Not even close. And you are funny, smart, and caring, and I like talking to you, seeing you laugh, and being with you."

Kailith kept quiet, running her hand through his hair. She already had her chance to get everything off her chest, and he was there to listen without judgment. The least she could do was to offer him the same. And the things he said about her were a nice bonus.

"And I know we knew each other only for a few days, but during this time, you were nothing but great to me. Even if we had a few stumbles here and there, you always did your best to make things right. I want to make this work. I've been passing up on any chances of long-term relationships for the past few years, just because I thought that I should put priority on my work and education. And all it got me was stuck on some shit station on the fucking fringe of the colonized space! Years of toiling on bullshit jobs just to hear time and time again that my experience isn't worth shit if I don't have a certificate, which would cost me more than I make in a year! Fuck me for even trying I guess!"

She hugged him closer, offering her silent support and giving him time to calm down, as she felt a tense shiver run through his body as he shouted his frustrations away.

"But you, here, this could be it. The captain never cared about my papers. She asked me where I worked and what I was good at, and that was it. Not only a chance to get off the station, but one that I would be paid for. With a great crew, no less. And you."

Another pause, this one longer. But she didn't mind, they had all the time in the world. She kept gently scratching his head, having already memorized all the little spots that made him relax into her embrace.

"I want this to work. I want to see if 'we' could work. And I don't mean like, professionally, work. Well, maybe that too, but I mean 'we' together. Us, together. Maybe you were right about the cryo thing. I could skip this trip, stock the food I need at the next station, and we could start all over again."

"Why the change of heart now?" She felt a wave of anxiety wash over her, hearing him finish his last two sentences. "When I proposed the same, you were very clearly against it."

"Yeah, I know, but then the whole thing in the break room happened, and I saw how much my presence means to you."

"Obviously?" She questioned him, not following his line of thought. "If you decide to leave the crew after this mission, I will do so as well. You mean more to me than you know. How is this a bad thing?"

She felt him fidget and already knew that he was about to say either something stupid or weird. Or both. He always did that when he was uncomfortable.

"Don't take this the wrong way," he started, already partially confirming her suspicion, "but I know how dumb I get with important decisions when I get horny. And I realized that you have been on this cycle of yours basically since we met. And..."

Kailith laughed. It was a full, uncontrolled sound coming deep from her chest, full of glee from hearing his babbling, but also carrying relief, washing away the restlessness from the fear of losing him.

Again, she felt his body betray him. This time, it tensed, with his arms close to his chest. A defensive stance. She hoped from the embarrassment, not anger. Not that she wished any of those upon him, but the first one was easier to work with.

"So, remember how I asked you who the main character of the show we were watching was?" She inquired rhetorically, starting her explanation. "We are ten episodes in, and you don't even know who the main characters are. Yeah, it was a trick question. Sue me. But, back to the show, it takes so long to get the ball rolling because it has no other choice. When it comes to relationships, our species is extremely selective, but not by choice. We just evolved this way. Pheromones are one part of it, but there is more to it. And most of it you can't see on camera. So, to sell the romance to the audience, the show needs to go over everything, explaining it step by step, which takes hours even with good editing. And all of this to match what we can do in person in five minutes or less."

"I don't think I get it," he confessed.

"That's okay, this topic usually takes four years of studies to understand in full, and I didn't take those classes, so my explanation is not the best." The scientist admitted. "Let's try this way. I've watched a few movies made by humans. A guy and a girl live together for weeks, and then one of them says that they still aren't sure if that's something they want. For us, it's the exact opposite. We can meet someone, and within the first hour, we can tell if that someone could be our partner. And this has nothing to do with arousal. I told you about the girl I met at the previous station, right? Twenty minutes, and we both knew this wasn't it. Most of the time, the answer is no. Like, overwhelmingly so. To the point that the government is trying to do something about it."

"By scanning rocks in the middle of nowhere?"

"No, that's a side gig for them, let me finish." she giggled, poking him in the side with a finger, "As I was saying, this is something of a screening test, conducted subconsciously by our body. It worked fine until we invented space travel. Then, we colonized new planets, which created an offshoot sub-species suited to those worlds, each slightly different in some ways. We also met aliens. Humans, for example. It all put a lot of strain on this system we have. And so it adapted over the last few thousand years, give or take. It got more selective. To the point that finding even one person in our entire lifetime is a success."

"I didn't know it was that bad."

"Oh, you have no idea. We are the only species in the galaxy that is in active decline. Our population is shrinking slowly, but it is, while all the others are growing exponentially. Top brass is shitting its pants, figuring out how not to lose the planets we have in case we go to war. We have one of the most advanced tech there is, but we haven't colonized anything new in centuries, simply because we have no people to do so."

"No wonder I never met anyone from your species before," he thought aloud, "but back to the previous topic, are you saying that I somehow passed this test that your body put me through?"

"You were an immediate match," she confirmed, dreamily. "Do you really need to ask?"

"Maybe not. But still, that only makes the problem worse."

"How so?"

"Your body is tricking you into wanting me," he stated, trying not to make it sound like an accusation. "At least that's the way you make it sound."

She sighed, remembering that he knew nothing about aivirians.

"You do realize that going into an arousal cycle is a conscious choice?"

"What?"

"I am horny, as you called it, not because my body felt like it. It presented me with an opportunity; I judged it and decided to go for it."

"Bullshit. That's not how being horny works."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that I was talking to the expert on how my body works. Do you do lectures? I'm sure I could learn a lot from you."

"Okay, okay, point taken. So, how does it work?"

"The arousal cycle is a drive. A motivation to do stuff. Mostly to have sex, true, but that's if I let it get too high, like what happened during our break earlier today. Usually, it's more general than that. For example, it helps me focus on the work in the lab when we are there together. You don't realize it, but we got a shitload of tests done over the past few days. We are way ahead of schedule, and not only because you are helping me."

"I don't get it. How does being turned on help with work?"

"Because you hear 'arousal' and immediately think of sex. Your cycle comes and goes so fast that you may never even experience the low, steady state as we do. Have you ever been in a situation where you got so into doing something that you lost track of time? That's me in the last few days. Do you know what I've been trying to focus on all this drive? On our relationship. On you. Everything I did, I did because I tried to get closer to you, despite the whole 'food' situation, not because of it. Believe me, it made things awkward for me as well. Especially the first two days, when you avoided me after work. That hurt."

"Oh." He didn't like the way she said the last part. "Sorry about that, it wasn't intentional. You can maybe control it, as you said, but my body does what it wants sometimes, so I tried to avoid making things even more weird between us."

"I know. I mean, I don't know how it is for you, but I saw how you act when you are horny. You are such a cute mess," she teased, poking him with a finger again, "you could barely think, let alone speak."

Her body transformed into a prison of flesh in a heartbeat, completely immobilizing her partner as she felt him try to pull away from her. No, it was her time to play now. And he will keep still and take it.

"And you thought I would act the same as you did?" She whispered right into his ear. "Not being able to think for yourself, letting your body decide for you what to do and how to act. A walking, breathing puppet, controlled by his desire, moving as I pull your strings. My horny little human, forgetting how to say 'no' every time I order him around."

Her hand sneaked lower, grabbing gently his crotch through his pants, eliciting a whimper from him and another, weak attempt at breaking her grasp.

"You accuse me of thinking with my dick, but turns out you are the one who can't keep it in his pants." She licked his earlobe, making him shiver with barely contained arousal. "Thankfully for you, that's exactly the way I like you."

She turned him onto his back, then climbed on top of him, getting on all fours.

"You know, I think I did a bad job selling this idea of a relationship to you back in the break room," she apologized, kissing him. "I made it all about me, which isn't how it's supposed to work. So I think it's time to make it up to you for me being so selfish."

Kailith gave him another kiss while sliding her hands under his T-shirt.

"A little help?" She asked, wanting to ease him into the mood, expecting him to be a bit shy. "It's only fair; I've been topless the whole time."

As he worked on getting his shirt off, Kailith moved lower, tracing licks and kisses all over his now bare torso. But she didn't stop there, sliding even further, her head getting closer and closer to his hips. With the limited space of the single bed, Adam had to move back as well, resting his back against the wall behind him. A brief technical difficulty, which she used to tug at his pants, getting them down to his knees in a single pull.

"Wait," he said nervously as she threw his pants to the side, leaving him with only his boxers on, "I'm not... You know. As big as you are."

"That's alright, I knew what I was getting into with you being a human," she reassured him, planting a few kisses low on his abdomen, taking care to avoid touching the tent in his underwear for now. "There is nothing to be ashamed of. I'm myself a bit below average, so I will be the last person to judge you."

"Below average?" He must have heard it wrong. "Please tell me you are joking."

"I wish," she sighed, "but I'm not done growing yet, so we will see in a few years if the situation changes."

He tried to imagine it, but she didn't let his mind wander, grabbing his attention back when she hooked her fingers under his waistband.

"May I?"

He gave a silent nod, lifting his hips a little to help her.

His stiff dick snapped up, finally free from the confines of his boxers. With a respectable size, by human standards, he never felt as if he was lacking in this department, but now, after witnessing what she was packing, he wasn't so sure anymore.

"Whoah. It looks so much better in person," Kailith marveled at his sight. "Can I touch it?"

"Uh, feel free, I guess," he nodded again, watching her closely, "and you don't have to ask for permission every single time."

"Right, I forgot you like it when I'm in charge."

"That's not what I said."

"Yeah, but that's what you meant," she put a stop to their argument by tracing her fingers along the underside of his shaft, "Now stay quiet and let me see what I'm working with here."

She touched, rubbed and ever so gently squeezed his dick in various places, making mental notes of the stiffness and texture, and, more importantly, his reactions to her caresses.

"Does the skin make it less sensitive? No, don't answer, I want to figure it out on my own." She traced her finger around the glans before noticing that the foreskin could be pulled back. She tried doing so but stopped, afraid of causing him pain. "Does this hurt?"

He shook his head, and she pulled further until the whole head of his cock popped out. She saw a drop of precum flow out as the whole shaft throbbed.

"I think you are ready. But keep quiet; the walls here are thin."

He wasn't ready, and neither could he keep his voice down.

Adam fully expected her to start slow, maybe with a handjob, or some more teasing. But Kailith had other plans. As her head dived forward, sheathing his entire prick in her slick mouth, making him gasp loudly. He had endured the constant teasing since he had walked aboard, and so far, he hadn't had the chance to do something on his own about it.

"Fuck, fuck, slow down, slow down!" He breathed out, pushing against her head.

"Whaa...?" The woman pulled back, licking all the way up from his balls to the tip of his shaft, making him catch his breath once more. "Why? I barely did anything."

He thought she meant it as the start of a conversation and expected him to answer. But she was already finished with talking, going back down and wrapping her inhumanly long tongue around the base of his cock and squeezing it.

But as much as making him squirm was fun, she wanted him to enjoy it and not simply rush to the finish line. Slowing down the pace, she lay down between his legs, getting into a more comfortable position, fully prepared now to take her time pleasuring her partner. But there was a small problem still.

"Keep your voice down," she reprimanded him with a stern look, "I don't want to explain myself to the girls tomorrow more than I already do."

Adam nodded, and she went back to work, but it quickly became obvious that he wasn't going to keep his word. Kailith tried to go easy on him, taking great delight in hearing his whimpers, but this was supposed to be about him and not her. Giving him what he needed would mean letting all the crew know what was happening, though, and they already teased her for falling head over heels for him. There was a chance they weren't yet back in their cabins, but Kailith was not a betting woman. So, she took matters into her own hands.

"Don't move, don't speak, just stay here," she commanded him, standing up and walking to her lab coat, searching through the pockets. "Close your eyes. No, I don't want to hear any objections."

She finally found what she was looking for and walked back to bed, but not to her previous position just yet.

"Open your mouth. Good boy." Adam felt something soft being pushed in, muffling him. "And don't even think about spitting it out."

It took him only a second to figure out what that was. Not from the silky texture, which helped, but from the taste. Her panties, now firmly stuffed in his mouth were soaked with her cum, the sweet taste unmistakable to his trained tongue.

"I didn't have the towel with me in the lab, and they wouldn't fit on me now, anyway." Kailith shrugged, explaining quickly before laying back down between his legs and spreading his thighs further apart, giving herself unrestricted access to his cock. "So now you have something tasty to bite on. You can keep them, by the way. Aren't I generous?"

She wasn't expecting him to answer any of her previous questions, and she certainly didn't expect him to do so with this one. What she wanted him to do instead was to moan and writhe in her grasp as she was finally free to stop holding back and show him exactly what that tongue could do.

His entire crotch turned into a slick mess, each inch of his skin covered in her saliva, as she mercilessly abused each pleasure point that she found, making her little human whine into her wet underwear. She felt him throb whenever she broke the contact, leaving him aching for more, and then she continued her assault just as his resolve started to crack. That way, she could play with him a bit more, even though she knew he wouldn't last much longer.

And she was proven right, as she felt his hands on top of her head. Not pushing her away and not pulling her into him. Poor thing, he didn't even know what he wanted. But he made a crucial mistake when one of his fingers brushed against and tried to grab the small nub hidden under her hair, just above her forehead.

Kailith's eyes shoot open, his boldness taking her by surprise. But she wouldn't let him take the initiative. She snatched his hands and pinned them to his belly. If he wanted to play like that, she would show him his place. Her tongue slid out of her mouth, coiling around the base of his cock, then slithered further down, creating another loop around the top of his ballsack.

Adam groaned into his gag as she tightened her grip on his member, then whined as she started sucking. Being so close to orgasm for so long, thanks to her teasing, left him completely defenseless and unprepared for the barrage of pleasure she was putting him through.

With his hoarse voice no longer being any indication, his thighs snapping close around her head was the only warning she got, before he came, shooting rope after rope of cum inside her hungry maw. First, second, fifth... His body tensed in rhythmic spasms, surrendering itself to the pleasure she brought upon him. But his ejaculations seemed to be winding down after not even twenty seconds.

Was that it?

She pulled her tongue up, jerking him off with it, extending his orgasm, and unknowingly overstimulating him. His moan was now clearly heard even through the makeshift gag as he tried to pull away from her. Begrudgingly, she accepted that she had taken things too far.

She backed off, no longer wringing him dry, but gently lapping him up, letting him come down from his orgasm in a somewhat mild manner. His body may have jerked here and there as she traced over his sensitive flesh, but she saw him relax overall, which she took as permission to continue.

She let go of his arms and watched him closely as the sexual tension that filled his body visibly dissipated. She took great care to treat him softly now, feeling a bit guilty for pushing him further than she had intended moments before. She didn't stop until her tongue bath left his spotless.

Then she moved from her spot and crawled up, scooping him in a delicate grasp and placing him in a well-known little spoon position.

"I probably should have read more about humans," she confessed bashfully. "I thought I could figure you out as I went, but it didn't go as I expected it to."

His only answer was a groan.

"Are you mad at me?" She asked, concerned.

He mumbled something unintelligible.

"Oh shit, right, sorry!" She pulled her panties out of his mouth. "I completely forgot about that."

"Thanks." He smacked his lips, wondering how long the sweet taste of her cum will linger. "So, was this a reward or a punishment? I got kinda confused halfway through."

"Sorry! Sorry," She hugged him tight, squishing his body into her larger form, "I wanted to make it the best I could for you, but I messed it up."

"I mean, it was great. Really. A bit much at the end, though."

"Yeah, I overreacted a bit when you touched my..." She let the sentence hang, unfinished. "Anyway, are you sure you don't want to keep going? I promise I will make it even better."

"As tempting as this sounds, I think I'm done for today."

"So you're fine with only one orgasm?"

"I wouldn't mind doing this again if that's what you are asking."

"I'll remember that, but no, I meant right now. You only came once."

"Yes?"

"And was it good?"

"Girl, I think I blacked out for a second there. This was the best blowjob I have ever gotten."

"But you only came once," she repeated, confused. "Wait, is it like a human thing?"

"What is a human thing?"

"Being done after a single orgasm."

Adam thought about it, then thought some more, connecting her question with all the other knowledge he had gathered on Aivir so far. Finally, after reconciling all the facts and statements, he tried telling himself that comparing himself to an entirely alien species wasn't fair, but that did little to lift his mood.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Kailith was on the verge of panic; each time she tried to brighten the mood, it ended up having the opposite effect. "I didn't mean it like that! Please, fuck, I wasn't trying to be mean, seriously! I'm just stupid sometimes. Forget I said anything."

He sighed, knowing she had no ill intentions, but that didn't change the fact that sooner or later, this question was going to be asked. Better to deal with it now, if they have already gone this far.

"Don't worry about it," he comforted the anxious scientist, grabbing her hand, "I'm not mad or anything. With all we do together, it's easy to forget we are from completely different species. Me getting jealous of you would make as much sense as being jealous of a bird because it can fly, and I can't."

"You know, for someone so smart you can be a dumbass sometimes," she joked lightheartedly, "because what you just said was the most convoluted 'I'm jealous, but it will pass' thing I have ever heard."

"You seem awfully sure that you have me figured out."

"I am, and I do. For example, your back tenses when you are angry or embarrassed. Or both. Like you are doing right now."

"That's not fair." He complained, before realizing something more. "Wait a second. Is that why you always cuddle with me in this position?"

"See? Smart. I knew you would notice it eventually."

"For the record, I am submitting right now a formal protest against such treatment."

"Your objection has been acknowledged and dismissed."

"Why?"

"Before I answer, can I ask a question of my own?"

"Sure."

"Do you like it when I take charge?"

"Erm..." This wasn't something he expected to hear and certainly not something he wanted to think about right now. Thinking was dangerous. It sometimes resulted in him having to come to terms with answers he didn't like.

"I'm serious. Your body is very easy to read. And I'm not talking only about the way it reacts when you feel a certain way. I'm talking the way you speak, the way you behave, and the way you treat me."

"I'm sorry if..."

"No, this is not a complaint. You have nothing to apologize for, especially not the last thing. You've been nothing but fantastic. But even though you have been honest with me, right now, I need to know if you are honest with yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. Do you like it when I am in charge? Because from everything I've seen, you do."

"How can you tell?" He didn't exactly agree with her, but it wasn't far off.

"As I told you, aivirians have the almost subconscious ability to pick up cues about other people. Earlier, I made it sound as if it's all pheromones, but it's not. I don't know how to describe it any better to you. I notice things because you make them easy to notice. But with this one, I don't want it to cause another awkward situation where I forget that humans do things differently. But you don't have to answer today. Or at all, if you don't want to. I will try to keep myself in check in that case."

"And if I do answer? What happens if I say yes?"

"Well, you would make me very happy, that's for sure," she giggled. "I think I've made it obvious by now that I have a bit of a dominant streak. And if you let me, I could make you do a few things I think you would like."

"You mean a few things that 'you' would like."

"That too, but trust me when I say that I want you to enjoy it as well." She started scratching his head with long, smooth strokes, then went down to his neck, "There is no point to any of this if this relationship works only for one of us."

He stayed quiet for a while, thinking it over. Yeah, she was right; he did like it. But he gave up so much agency already. She was running the lab, and he was only helping her. She decided when they took breaks. Now, she was in his cabin, in his bed, but still, it felt as if she owned the place. And above all else, he was reliant on her when it came to food. Being an equal, at least when they got intimate, was the last bastion of his ego.

"Do I have to answer now?"

"No, of course not."

"I'll... think about it."

"Thank you. That's all I could ask for."

"No problem. Oh, and... thanks."

"What for?"

"Take a wild guess."

"Huh? Oh, right," she laughed, planting a kiss on top of his head, "it was my pleasure, cutie. Even if I messed it up for you."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did." She didn't let him have the final word on this. "Your first time with me was supposed to be great."

"And it was," he commented.

"Shut it." She poked him in the stomach, making him flinch. "My human deserves only the best. Anything less, and I will feel like I'm taking from you more than I give. You will see. I'm gonna read all the books Mia has on humans and learn everything that makes you tick. Next time we do this, you are in for a ride."

It sounded both incredible and ominous.

"I'm..." he tried, but was immediately interrupted.

"I swear, if you even try to say that I don't have to do it, I will gag you with my panties again. But you would probably like that." She threatened, only half joking. She felt him freeze in place, which made her back off a bit. "Look, I get it. You want to show some initiative of your own. From all I read about humans, it's the guys who are expected to make the first move. But I'm not a human, and I'm so high on my cycle that there is no way I could just lie back and let you do all the work. And besides, there is barely anything else to do on this ship, and I can't focus all of this energy only on the lab stuff."

"Not all the work," he stated quietly, hoping she would let him finish this time, "just half. Maybe sixty percent."

"Pfff, more like ten."

"Thirty."

"Are you trying to bargain with me?"

"Something like that."

"Hah! Twenty."

"Twenty-five."

"Twenty."

"Twenty-two."

"Don't push your luck, boy," he felt her body shake as she laughed, "I'll agree to thirty but only when I'm off the cycle, which probably won't be that often."

"And when on the cycle?"

"Ten. Tops."

"Fifteen."

"Where did I throw those panties?"

"Okay, ten, ten!" He laughed with her.

"Good boy."

She gave him one more kiss, then pulled the blanket over them. It wasn't cold, but he was still naked, and she wasn't taking any chances. Also, between using the blanket and telling him to put on some clothes, she knew she would always pick the first option. Not that he minded.

Well-deserved sleep took them shortly after.

------------|A|------------

Adam woke up first.

One of the few things he remembered about aivirians was that they needed more sleep than humans. Which meant he probably had a solid hour, if not more, before his red girlfriend was ready to get up.

He checked her grip and, to his surprise, found it quite loose, just a single arm resting over his body. He didn't want to wake her up, but he already had some ideas he wanted to put into motion, so as gently as he could, he lifted her limb and sneaked out of the bed.

He put on fresh clothes, trying not to make too much noise, and spotted rolled-up black panties while searching for his shoes. He picked them up and hung them near Kailith's lab coat to dry. She told him that he could keep them, right? He wondered if that was something she said in the heat of the moment or if she really meant it. He looked back at the sleeping scientist. Despite her size, she looked incredibly cute. Hair in disarray, the blanket covering her up to her tummy, hands close to her chest, grabbing the empty space where he was a few minutes ago.

He felt a strangely warm satisfaction watching her like this. He realized that this was the first time since leaving his home planet that he had someone who would be this close to him. Not only physically but emotionally as well. He walked closer to the bed and pulled the blanket all the way up to her neck, making sure she was nice and cozy. She instinctively grabbed it and wrapped herself up in it, making him smile at the sight.

He left the room and went straight to the mess hall. It was empty this early in the morning, which suited him just fine. The spaceship operated on a synchronized clock for the whole crew, so even if the concept of a morning didn't make any sense on the ship floating in the vacuum of space, it was still useful to describe the general time.

Adam walked to the water distributor and grabbed a large cup first, placing it under the nozzle and pressing down the black button. That's how she liked it, the first thing after she woke up. Next, he took a medium one and repeated the process, but with the red button, filling a cup for himself.

"Good morning," someone called him from the back. "I haven't seen you here in a while."

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Ivali walking into the room, looking as if she had pulled an all-nighter and was about to fall asleep standing. A far cry from the collected captain he was used to seeing.

"Yeah, had a lot of work in the lab," he nodded, finishing filling his drink.

"And no reason to join the rest of the crew for lunch, so why bother?"

Her remark stung, taking him by surprise. But he noticed a hint of irritation in her voice and not animosity. Maybe she was just tired. Or maybe she still blamed herself for the whole situation with his food. He remembered her opinion on the solution he chose and how she tried to sell him on the idea of cryo instead.

"I guess that too," he agreed cautiously, judging her reaction. "Do you want something to drink?"

"White," she sat down at one of the tables, resting her head on her hands, "medium."

Adam filled another cup and brought it to the exhausted woman, placing it in front of her.

"Thank you," she said, still staring down at the table in front of her.

"No problem." With that, he walked back to the distributor, picked up his cup and the one he had for Kailith, and started walking back to his cabin, but was stopped before he made it to the corridor.

"Adam, would you have a few minutes for a talk?" Ivali asked, now looking at him.

"Sure, you're the boss."

"Not like this. If I wanted to talk to you as a captain, I wouldn't be asking. But I am now. If you don't want to, just say so."

"No, no, it's fine," he said, sitting down on the opposite side of the table, "I'm in no rush."

"I appreciate it." Ivali took a sip of water, trying to find a good way to start the conversation. "I wanted to talk about you and Kailith."

"I kind of suspected as much," he nodded, reaching for his cup.

The captain let the silence hang for a few more seconds, but he didn't take the bait, still remembering how he set himself up the last time they spoke. She gave a faint smile, seeing him learn from his past mistakes. She couldn't help but be a little proud of him, even if it made her job more difficult. Adult talk it is.

"I'm going to be straight with you, I'm worried about Kailith." His brow raised. She still knew how to send him a curveball. "It's no secret that you two are now a thing. And it wasn't even a week since you joined the crew."

"Yeah, it all happened a bit fast," he confirmed, thinking about the few days. "I'm still getting used to it myself."

"That's what I'm worried about," she shot him a heavy stare. "I don't think you realize the seriousness of the situation. Kay fell heels over head for you. That's her life, obviously, but I care for her. For everyone in the crew, you included. Although I hope you understand that I have known her for far longer than I have known you."

"I'm not trying to use her or anything like that."

"Oh, don't worry, if I suspected you of thinking as much, we would be having an entirely different conversation." The intensity of the hidden threat broke through the usual calmness of her voice, the exhaustion taking its toll on the woman. "No, I don't think you have any wrong intentions with our scientist."

"So what's the problem?"

"The way I see it, she would follow you to the end of the world, but..." she squinted, watching him closely, "what's with the look?"

"Huh?"

"You did the thing with your eyes. Looking to the left and up while raising the brow. People do that when they recall things." So much for not making it easy for her. "She already said something, didn't she?"

There was no point in trying to hide anything from the captain. This woman had a lie detector built in. Or maybe there was something to what Kailith told him yesterday about aivirians being naturally good at picking up clues.

"She did," he sighed, reluctantly going over what happened. "Yesterday we talked about this topic, and she said that if I leave, she would do as well. I thought she was just saying this to make me feel good."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Ivali scratched her head, clearly tired, both physically and mentally. The shawl she wore wrapped around her head got tucked up, but she didn't seem to notice. "Here is how it looks from my point of view. You come aboard, and the next day, Kailith is in a better mood than I think I've ever seen her in. Two more days, and you are all she is talking about, to the point that the rest of the crew is joking about it. Now, she doesn't even sleep in her cabin anymore. Not to mention the work you do in the lab."

"I'm trying to help where I can," Adam felt he at least could defend them both in the professional setting, "she told me that we are making good progress, so at least I'm not holding her back."

"Good progress," Ivali chuckled, "nice one."

"Are we in trouble?" The last thing he wanted was to mess up the work he was supposed to help with.

"If you count boredom as trouble? Sure." She scratched her head again. Adam caught sight of Ivali's horns under the shawl, confirming something he was curious about. "Usually, the lab is the bottleneck. But now I can barely keep up with making reports off all the data you send my way."

"Oh. So... this..." he made a vague hand gesture, indicating the captain's general state, "is our fault?"

"If anyone is at fault, it's mine. You are quick to learn, more than I expected. Kay told me you got the hang of the lab by the second day, and I thought she was making it up to make you look good. Now I know better. Not to mention, she is high on the cycle right now, so she is crushing tests one after another. You make a dangerous duo."

"Dangerous to your sleep schedule?"

"That too," the captain smirked, "and to the Aivirian government budget, since I'm expecting a fat bonus from this job."

"So, Kailith... hmmm... Kay?" He looked up at the captain, waiting for some comment.

"Don't call her that. Unless she allows you to." Ivali said with a stern voice, but immediately relented. "Which I suspect won't be long now. Still, ask her first."

"Is that a big deal?"

"Depends on the person, but usually it is."

"Is it a big deal for Mia... I mean Miantaria?" He corrected himself, but not quickly enough to hide his mistake.

"Especially for her. Our onboard doctor and scientist tend to tease each other quite often, so that's why Kailith tends to use Miantaria's private name. Think about it as a sibling rivalry. They aren't related to each other, obviously, but they are the youngest here and almost the same age as one another. Well, the youngest besides you. The rest of the crew differs, but we have a few old-timers."

"I was curious about that," Adam asked, knowing he had to tread lightly. "When we talked before, you said that aivirians can live up to two hundred years, right?"

"At least, not up to," she corrected him with a crooked smile, "some can live for much longer."

"Right, so can I ask about that?"

"You're twenty-six, right? Kailith is thirty-two. Maintaria thirty-five."

"That was one of the questions, but I wanted to know something else. If they are the youngest, then the oldest person here is, like, what? Sixty, seventy?"

Ivali looked at him questioningly, trying to figure out if that was another joke.

"Who do you think looks to be seventy?"

"I was just guessing!" He backed off, putting his hands up. "That's why I asked. To me, you all look..."

"Look what?"

Her piercing stare made him feel as if he was walking through a minefield. But there was no easy way out.

"Good," he confessed, "you look good." He felt himself blush as he turned his head to the side, avoiding eye contact with the captain.

She chuckled, seeing his reaction, and sprawled out on the chair, suddenly enjoying this conversation much more than before.

"What if I told you that the oldest person here is over two hundred years old?"

"No way."

"Yes way," she smiled to herself, "do you want to guess who it is?"

"No." This was an obvious trap.

"Too bad this wasn't a question. Guess."

"Ottavia? I saw her once in the hangar. But I don't think I'm right."

"Why her?"

"She is the biggest."

"And besides being the biggest?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "humans are easy to tell, we get... well, old, with age. I watched an aivirian TV show with Kailith, and I don't think I saw one old person there. Do you just get bigger until you die? Like crocodiles?"

"No idea what a crocodile is, but you are close." She laughed, her good mood winning over exhaustion. "But it's not our body that grows bigger."

Somehow, it clicked together.

"It's your horns," he realized, pointing at her head. "Is that why you hide them?"

Her smile vanished as soon as he said it.

"Yes," she sighed heavily, pulling her shawl back down and covering them. "Our horns grow for our whole life. It's easy to tell someone's age just by looking at them. That's why Kailith and Miantaria are constantly fighting, Mia has hers already out. It's a cultural thing, a sign of adulthood."

"Kailith has hers almost out too," he defended his girlfriend, "only nubs so far, but they are there."

"That's what Mia is teasing her about. It's a delicate subject. And by the way, how do you know that? They aren't visible from under the hair yet."

"I accidentally touched them. I think. Yesterday."

"Did you apologize?"

"Should I have?"

"Absolutely."

"I will, first thing, once she wakes up. I promise."

"You are lucky she loves you." Ivali shook her head in disbelief. "Otherwise, you would be stuck in the med bay right now."

"She does?" He didn't care about the med bay.

"Does she what?"

"Love me."

Ivali looked at him with an expression he couldn't quite decipher.

"Yes," she confirmed eventually, "I am quite sure of it. Do you have any doubts about it?"

"No, it's just... It's hard to believe still. I got so used to things going bad for me all the time that I tend to doubt it when something goes right. And now too many things went right at the same time."

"Good thing you've got months to get used to the new ways, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for the confirmation, though. Sometimes it's good to get the opinion of someone with experience in the field of relationships."

He saw a split-second flinch of grief on her face. He realized his error too late to take it back.

"I just know her." She stated with a deadpan expression.

"I... I'm sorry." He wanted to say more but didn't know what to.

"This job we do, it's not something you could convince someone with a partner to sign up for." She explained, her voice tense, the lack of sleep finally making a crack in her composure. "Some of us are in it for the money while they still have the time, some aren't interested in having a special other, and some... at one point were."

"Do you... want to talk about it?"

"Appreciate the gesture, but I don't need a shoulder to cry on. Maybe a pillow and a soft bed, but I already have that one waiting for me."

"Just trying to help," he explained.

"I know. I know." She sighed, stretching her back. "Any last questions before I let you get back to your girl?"

"I had one earlier."

"Had?" Her brow raised. "So not anymore?"

"No."

"What's changed?"

"Now I know it would be rude to ask."

"Come on, I'm barely awake, I probably won't remember it tomorrow anyway."

"That's a lie, and you know it."

"You can report me to the government. Good luck trying to find the correct department, though. Now, out with it."

He tapped his fingers on the table, trying to figure out if this was another bait. Screw it, no reason to dance around the subject.

"Could you show me your horns?"

She didn't answer at first, quietly staring at him.

"Why do you want to see them?"

"I was curious about your shawl since the first time I saw you. Back then, it was just something unusual to see since no one was wearing them like this anymore. But later, I saw the rest of the crew, and they all had horns, so I assumed you either didn't have any or lost yours and are trying to hide it."

"No one is wearing it like I do anymore?" She cherry-picked a part of his sentence. "Why is that?"

"It's kind of a thing that old people do. At least for humans, I don't know Aivirian fashion trends."

"Hmm..." he heard her foot tap against the deck, counting the silent seconds that passed by. "Damned if I do and damned if I don't."

With that, Ivali reached behind her head and untied the shawl, pulling it off and untying her hair with one motion. If the size of one's horns marked their age, he now believed she could be over two hundred years old.

Two of them, identical in size and shape, jutted out from the top of her forehead and immediately curved back, staying close to her skull. They stretched back the whole length of her head, then broke away at the end, bending up and slightly inwards, giving them a fierce, almost regal appearance, like a crown made of bone. Dark crimson near the base, they turned almost black near the tips, which created a gorgeous contrast with her white hair.

"It's rude to stare," she reprimanded him, "and close your mouth."

"Sorry," he focused his attention back on the conversation. "And thank you. Can I ask you one more question?"

"At this point? Go for it."

"Why would you hide them?" He almost felt offended on her behalf for not being proud of how they looked. "They are amazing."

"They make me look old," she countered, taken aback by his comment.

"No offense, but being old is not something to be ashamed of. It's either that or dying young, and I know which one I would choose."

"That's one way of looking at it."

"Right? And in my totally honest opinion? That shawl doesn't do you any favors. Not compared to how you look without it. Seriously. And by the way, no one can see you here besides your crew, so why bother hiding them?"

"I wear it for myself, not for them." Ivali looked at the shawl in her hand.

"You could not wear it for yourself. And with my vote here, that's two to one."

She looked at him with a smirk.

"Smart and with a silver tongue. Watch out, or I will get the feeling that you are about to ask me out for dinner."

"Oh, not at all. I already have one girl to keep me full, but thank you for the proposition."

"What..." The captain's eyes went wide open as she understood what she had just implied. "Oh. Ohh! No! I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

She saw his wide grin and knew he was damn proud of himself right now.

"You little brat." She shook her head, smiling to herself. "You got me this time."

"Someday we will have a normal conversation, but today is not this day." He nodded, extending his hand towards her as one does after winning a match. "But in all seriousness, Kailith is already a handful, but I have a good feeling this will work out."

Ivali grabbed his hand and shook it.

"I hope so, for both of you." She didn't let his hand go, instead squeezing it harder and pulling him slightly closer. "But you should know that polyamorous relationships are quite common among aivirians. And I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing."

"What?!" Adam froze, processing what he had just heard, but she gave him no time to finish.

"You know, if she takes care of your dinner, you could swing by for lunch with me sometime. Or just a late-night snack."

"Wait, are you serious?"

"And we have a draw." She shook his limp hand before letting it go.

This woman. Adam was equally disappointed with himself for throwing away the advantage, as he was impressed with her wit. And she was barely staying awake.

"Motherfucker." He swore.

Ivali leaned across the table and whispered right into his ear. "Keep teasing me like that, and I will make sure you are one by the end of the day. Just don't tell my granddaughter that I got you first; she'll get jealous."

He almost fell from his chair.

"Wait a fucking second, Kailith is your granddaughter?!"

Ivali clapped her hands, laughing out loud.

"Let's call it a game here. Try not to throw away your lead this fast next time."

Adam let his head hit the table, utterly defeated. The captain stood up, walked around, and patted him on the back.

"One day we will have a normal conversation," she promised, "but this day won't be anytime soon, since I just got reminded how much fun it is to act young. It wasn't a shoulder to cry on, but thank you for your help. I'm glad I can have you in our little crew."

She walked off to her quarters, hoping to finally get some proper sleep. No emergencies, no calls, no messages. She needed some time alone to think things over. And maybe make some changes.

Adam spent some time collecting his thoughts, and once he did, he switched to wondering if what she said was true and being mad at himself for not asking for confirmation. He was almost sure she was just messing with him. Almost. Both she and Kailith had red skin, so that checked out, but if he applied the same logic to humans, he would have billions of siblings.

He made a mental note to ask her about it later. He didn't want to involve Kailith in this since he had no idea how to even begin explaining the whole situation between him and the captain, and the last thing he wanted was to complicate everything even further. And besides, Ivali was playing jokes on him, making him sweat for no reason. Yeah, that must have been it.

He refilled his cup and left the mess hall shortly after, going back to his cabin. More like his and Kailith's one, now that he thought about it. Just as he got used to everything being big, there was something new he needed to learn to live with. But this time, he welcomed the change as he opened the doors and walked inside.

------------|A|------------

Kailith woke up to a strange feeling.

Usually, she needed another half-hour or so before she got motivated enough to get out of bed, maybe less with her new boyfriend around, but today, something was different. She lay on her front, sprawled out on the bed, and her muscles felt weirdly weak. But in a good way.

Then she felt two soft things press firmly to the sides of her spine and slide up, starting from her lower back and going all the way up to the base of her neck. In her still half-asleep state, her eyes almost rolled to the back of her head as she let out an involuntary gasp. God, that felt good.

"Morning," Adam greeted her, pulling his hands back for another pass. "You seemed to enjoy that."

"Mhmm." She breathed out, now noticing the weight of his body sitting down on her bum, and pieced things together.

"Do you want some more?" He asked her, despite already knowing the answer.

"Oh fuck yes."

"Say please."

"Ugh..." She wiggled her hips, making his entire body sway from side to side, but he easily kept his balance. He pinched her in retaliation, making her grunt in disapproval.

"Come on, say please," he didn't let up.

"I'm gonna get you for that. You know that, right?"

"Maybe you will, maybe you won't," he slid his thumbs against her back, teasing her with a touch too gentle to massage the muscles underneath the red skin. "Now say please."

"Adam, I swear..."

"Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah," and now a scratch on the way back down, making her shiver, "We both know you won't do anything before you get your morning nap. So, how about you make things easy for yourself and just say please?"

"Please..." she breathed out, nearly inaudibly.

"Come again?"

"Please, keep going." This time, it came out with more conviction.

"I don't know. You don't sound like you want it."

"Adam, for fucks sake, pleeeease use those hands!"

Music to his ears. Maybe he would regret it later, but hearing her beg for him made it all worth it.

He went back to work, massaging first the muscles closest to the spine, then spreading outward, working her sides, ribs, shoulder blades, and finishing with the neck. Then he did it all over again. And again.

After the third pass, neither of them could move. His whole arms burned from exhaustion after he underestimated the amount of effort he would need to put in, and she couldn't flex a single muscle, a testimony to a job well done by him. Not seeing any reasons why he also shouldn't rest for a few more minutes, Adam lay down on Kailith's back, taking a moment to appreciate the fact that this was the first time she wasn't the big spoon. He felt he earned it.

"It was perfect." She whispered, blissed out. "Thank you."

"My pleasure."

"I'm almost sure it was mostly my pleasure, but whatever you say."

"I've heard that there is more fun in giving than in receiving. I think there is something to it."

"I'll hold you to it."

"Oh, already thinking about tomorrow morning?"

"Maybe..."

"Someone is getting spoiled." He kissed the nape of her neck.

"Look who's talking; you are the one doing this to me." Kailith turned her head, trying to kiss him back, but couldn't reach far enough. "Let me turn around."

He did his best to stay on top as she moved, and a few moments later, his bed became much more comfortable when, instead of resting his head on her shoulder blades, it got squished between her breasts.

"How's this?" She asked, smiling at him.

"Perfect. I want to stay here for the whole day."

"I can let you sleep like this if you want. I mean, more than I already do."

"Don't tempt me." This sounded great. He already regretted not being able to take her up on that offer immediately. "I won't be able to give you a massage if you lie on your back."

"Of course you will," she giggled, petting his head, "it just will be a different kind of massage. With more tongue, and less hands."

"I told you not to tempt me," he sighed, his mind already playing back the memory of his mouth closing around her nipples, "and now I'm thinking about it. Fantastic."

"I don't mind." She stretched her arms, yawning. "But we have work to do, so five more minutes, and then we get up, okay?"

"Actually, I spoke with the captain about that."

"About work?"

"Yeah. We are going too fast. She barely keeps up with creating reports, or something like that. She looked really tired when I saw her this morning."

"You saw her today? I didn't know she woke up this early."

"She doesn't usually, I think. She was pulling an all-nighter. I went to the mess hall to get something to drink. Your black is on the desk, by the way..."

"Ohhh, thank you!"

"... and met her as she was going back to her cabin to get some sleep."

"Was she surprised to see you up this early?"

"I don't think so. I don't need as much sleep as you do, so she probably figured it out."

"Right, I still forget about that. Anyway, what happened next?"

"I went back here."

"No, I meant after you talked about the work." She pressed on, seeing him hesitate. "Come on, you're telling me that Ivali complained that she has too much on her head and just ended the conversation there? She must have had another topic to talk about."

Fair, that didn't sound like her at all.

"Okay, so we talked a bit about us. You and me. And... Oh, right!" He remembered the promise he had made. "I completely forgot. So, this may be a bit of a sensitive topic, but I think I had my cultural difference moment."

"Yeah?" That got her interest. "How so?"

"So yesterday, when we were having fun in the bed here..."

"You mean when I gave you a blowjob so good I had to gag you not to wake up the whole crew?"

"Yes, that. Thank you for reminding me," he confirmed with a mocking tone, but she interrupted him again.

"You do realize I will do it again tonight, right?"

"That's... let me finish first." He felt they were getting further and further from the point he tried to make, not to mention that she didn't make it easy for him to focus on the conversation. He took a deep breath and carried on, trying to sound calm. "So during that, I might have pushed against your head, and I think I touched your horns. I was told that's a big deal for aivirians."

"Oh, that. Right." Kailith broke eye contact, her lips tightening.

"And I want to say that I'm sorry. I didn't know how important that was. Well, I still don't, but at least I know it is. I won't do it again."

Kailith took a few seconds to piece together the response, wanting to say too many things at once but not knowing how to start with any of them.

"It's fine," she responded, looking back at him. "I also overreacted when you did it, and only later realized that you most likely didn't know. I should have told you then, but... I don't know. I just didn't."

"Won't happen again, you have my word."

"I'd rather have you ask before you do it next time."

"So you want me to do it again?"

"Kind of? How much did Ivali tell you about this?"

"Only that I would be now in the med bay if you didn't lo..." he stopped himself mid-sentence.

"If I didn't what?"

He sat up, deciding that confessing to her with his head between her boobs would be tactless.

"So, there is something I wanted to say for some time now, but I couldn't bring myself to do it." He began, carefully putting the words together. "I really enjoy being with you, and..."

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too." She interrupted him, rolling her eyes.

"What?"

"Weren't you about to say that you love me?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"And I love you too. Done. I know you probably wanted to be the first one to say it, but hey, that's what you get with me."

He stared at her, trying to figure out if he was angry, disappointed, or impressed.

"You didn't have to ruin the moment, though."

"Words are nice, but I like action better. And if that massage didn't scream 'I love you' then I don't know what will."

"I had the whole speech planned out." Not exactly true, but it was close enough.

"Huh, good thing I stopped you then. We would be stuck here for the next half an hour." She joked. "Come on, don't give me this look."

Kailith pulled herself up and went straight for the kiss, making sure he couldn't stay mad at her. Obviously, it worked. They stayed like this, enjoying each other's presence, until they ran out of breath.

"That's not fair." He complained halfheartedly.

"So what? You like it." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then a slap on the butt. "Now move, we have work to do, and I want to get my black before it gets completely cold."

------------|A|------------

Adam heard the airlock cycling but didn't look back.

There was only one person who could be coming in, and he was running an important test, which, if successful, could save the whole crew a few days of work.

"Still working?" He heard Kailith shout across the lab as she walked in.

"Yup. Just finishing."

"Sooo, I talked with the captain during lunch."

"Oh?" She didn't tell him straight away what it was about, so he knew to play it safe. "Anything important?"

"You tell me."

He guessed correctly.

"Was it about me still working here?" He asked, purposefully not turning away from the machine he was operating. "I think she wanted me to help everyone on the ship a bit, to see what suits me best. I should probably transfer soon."

"Please, do not remind me about it," she sighed, "but no, we didn't talk about that. Any other guesses?"

"No idea," he lied. Well, he had some, but listing all the possible topics would be suicide.

"So Ivali simply decided to ditch her shawl and change her hairstyle for the first time since I joined the crew, right after she talked with you, coincidentally, and you want to tell me that you know nothing about it?"

He opened his mouth to answer, then closed it since he didn't know what to say. Damn, so he really had this much of an effect on the old captain. Maybe he should give himself more credit.

"Really?" He managed to keep his voice in check, still fiddling with the machine. "I'll need to check on her later, see how she looks now. Better, I assume, but still."

He heard something soft hit the floor.

"So you know nothing about it?"

"Why? Don't tell me you are jealous." This was a dangerous game he was playing, but making dumb decisions was one of the leisure activities he didn't have the chance to practice for quite some time. And this was a good chance to get back at her for all the teasing he had to endure.

Something else ended up on the floor, sounding suspiciously like clothes. He got his confirmation when he heard her slip out of her pants, the belt buckle clanging against the deck.

This was the thing that made him finally turn around, but unfortunately, it proved to be too late. Before he could catch a glimpse of the approaching woman, he found himself picked up and thrown over her shoulder. The view wasn't half bad; quite the opposite. He could appreciate the way her toned, naked ass moved as she carried him to the break room.

"I'll show you jealous," she snarled, closing the doors behind them and throwing him onto the bed.

Maybe he took it too far with the teasing back.

Oh well. It was lunchtime anyway.