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

[warpfairy]

She blinks.

"You want to come with me? On - it really is seventy-five percent surveying. Even the planting of warp plans is mostly a matter of learning to write numbers in the local languages and running a computer analysis of citation patterns to find someone inclined to pass mysterious research off as their own."

[dream_me_up]

"I could help with that for sure," he laughs. "And I've never done it before. And I like you."

[warpfairy]

"...It might be nice to have company."

[dream_me_up]

He grins.

"Especially if I stick around for at least another seven years?"

[warpfairy]

She goes very green at that. "I - would - find that agreeable."

[dream_me_up]

"You're blushing again," he informs her. "You know, you're only going to live to what, a hundred and fifty, hundred and sixty? Is one week every seven years really enough for you?"

[warpfairy]

"It... is a minimum, not a maximum, but - until a week ago I had not - indulged - at all - and do not yet know what rate I will prefer for the intervening years. And I am not sure what you are insinuating. I specified that I would not take assistance as an indication of a more ongoing commitment, but that relates to the fact that the situation was urgent and I did not have a traditional mate available with whom to conduct a ritual marriage-sealing. The matter will not be urgent again for seven years."

[dream_me_up]

"I'm insinuating that I want to have sex with you again sometime in the next seven years," he says patiently. "And I think you do too. It was fun the first few hundred times, wasn't it?"

[warpfairy]

"...I wasn't counting. But. It was. I simply - I am not sure that - I am aware of cultures that consider it isolable from other facets of life but outside of recent context I do not appear to fit into such a culture."

[dream_me_up]

"Does this mean you don't want an alien concubine?" he asks, blinking innocently.

[warpfairy]

"You are not an alien relative to me," Isabella points out.

[dream_me_up]

"Well, all right. I want to follow you around the galaxy and help you steal fire from the gods and talk to you and snuggle with you and have sex with you, because I like you and you're fun and I'm going to miss you when you die. What parts of that plan don't you like?"

[warpfairy]

"The plan does not contain objectionable parts. It - does not have a recognizable shape if I presume those parts are the only ones operative."

[dream_me_up]

"Does it need a recognizable shape? What's missing?"

[warpfairy]

"It would be easier to think about if it corresponded to something I have a label for. I can't tell if you want to be my - physically affectionate friend - or my sa-kugalsu or something in between."

[dream_me_up]

"Well... yes," he says. "Yes, I want to be one of those things."

[warpfairy]

"Which of those things?"

[dream_me_up]

"One of them. Something in that range. I'd be more specific if I wanted something more specific but I don't."

[warpfairy]

"I do not understand."

[dream_me_up]

"Then maybe neither do I. What do you want?"

[warpfairy]

"I want to know what you are - insinuating, suggesting, asking."

[dream_me_up]

"I keep trying to tell you!" he laughs. "I don't know how else to say it!"

[warpfairy]

"I will react differently to suggestions of affectionate friendship, offers of - boyfriendhood - and proposals of marriage!"

[dream_me_up]

"But I'm trying to tell you I wouldn't. I mean, I'd feel a little differently about them, but all three are fine."

[warpfairy]

She peers at him, dumbfounded.