hormonal imbalance

[warpfairy]

They study Klingon. They work out a sleep schedule. They approach Betazed.

They are two days away from the system when Isabella notices something - troubling.

She takes longer than usual to compose herself that morning, and emerges from the living quarters with carefully measured steps, and avoids eye contact.

"Do you," she asks Lalita quietly, "have the ability to fly this class of ship?"

Comments

[dream_me_up]

"Well, you can if you want," he says. "I have a good fifteen years left on this one. You'll just have to quietly drop or rename me at some point."

[warpfairy]

"Should you be crew or passenger?"

[dream_me_up]

"Does it make a difference?"

[warpfairy]

"Only to what I put in the manifest file."

[dream_me_up]

"Whatever you want, then."

[warpfairy]

"All right."

Snuggle.

[dream_me_up]

Snuggle cuddle snuggle kiss! Mmmmmmmmmmm. Kiss.

[warpfairy]

Kisses.

Hand on face and questioning look?

[dream_me_up]

"Yes," he murmurs.

[warpfairy]

Snuggles and touch-telepathy.

[dream_me_up]

He likes her. He likes her a lot. He is just full of lovely wam snuggly happy feelings for her.

[warpfairy]

That makes her all warm and snuggly and happy right back! Yay!

[dream_me_up]

Mmm. Snuggly and warm.

[warpfairy]

Mmm. Good things.

Isabella's stomach growls.

"Instant risotto?" she says.

[dream_me_up]

"Sure," he laughs.

They can snuggle-eat together like they did during the past week! Can they?

[warpfairy]

That is totally doable! Instant risotto is as the name promises. Isabella plates two servings and sits herself in his lap.

[dream_me_up]

He cuddles her and noms the food. Nom!

[warpfairy]

They get closer to Betazed.

When they're only a couple hours out, Isabella observes: "Betazed is predominantly inhabited by telepaths."

[dream_me_up]

"...Yes?"

[warpfairy]

"I can block casual reading, but you probably can't, unless you were engineered by someone particularly prophetic about what humanity would encounter in later years. If I couldn't block it I wouldn't want to go anywhere near a Betazoid. We have enough supplies to go to Hallia instead, if you were only agreeing to Betazed to avoid inconveniencing me."

[dream_me_up]

"Oh. I don't care," he shrugs. "I don't spend so much time thinking about my secrets that it's a problem to go near Betazoids."

[warpfairy]

"...Are you generally that casual about telepathy?"

[dream_me_up]

"...Yeah, why?"

[warpfairy]

"I - perhaps too much, I haven't thought about it in any practical-level detail before - tend to romanticize telepathic connections."

[dream_me_up]

"Well, Vulcan telepathy is different from Betazoid," he points out reasonably. "There's not a lot of romance in walking past a stranger and knowing they're probably reading your mind a little, but there's plenty of romance in cuddling up with you and letting you read me."