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]

How about the extremely obvious thing? They can do that!

[dream_me_up]

They can absolutely do that. They can do lots of that.

[warpfairy]

Good. Isabella really needs to do lots of that right now.

[dream_me_up]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.



Time passes. They do the obvious thing. Occasionally Lalita partakes of food or sleep or water. Mostly he partakes of Isabella.

[warpfairy]

He is soooo welcome to partake of her.

Sometimes she touches his face, but then she makes a brief confused expression like she doesn't know why she's doing that, and stops, and resumes whatever else they are up to at the time.

[dream_me_up]

One of those times, he catches her hand on its retreat and kisses her fingertips.

"Mm?"

[warpfairy]

"Keep almost - telepathing you," she murmurs, squirming.

[dream_me_up]

"You can if you want," he murmurs back.

[warpfairy]

She slides her hand over his face and kisses him and reaches out for his mind.

[dream_me_up]

His mind is full of kisses. And warmth and joy and affection and Isabella, a kind of generalized appreciation for every facet of her existence.

[warpfairy]

Oooh. Oooooooooh. It would be pretty much impossible for her to be more all over him than she was a minute ago, but she will try very hard.

[dream_me_up]

Now he also has specific appreciations!

[warpfairy]

Yummy.

It's easiest to establish contact with hand-to-face, but she can maintain it with any touch, and he has not shown much inclination to make that difficult.

[dream_me_up]

Lalita will be happy to maintain physical contact for the rest of the week if that's what she prefers. Possibly excluding visits to the bathroom.

[warpfairy]

She can always reestablish as necessary.

[dream_me_up]

Mm. Good. He likes broadcasting his many appreciations.

[warpfairy]

She likes collecting them!

She's not as good at sending - actually, her only unusual talent in this matter is blocking people from peering into her thoughts - but she can do a little. As feedback.

[dream_me_up]

Ooh, feedback. He appreciates feedback.

[warpfairy]

He can have lots, especially if he does lovely things with it!

[dream_me_up]

Of course he does.

[warpfairy]

Good good good good. Lovely things.

Her excess hormones are, in the background, winding down their cycle.

[dream_me_up]

Yes. Lalita can tell.

(He recognized pon farr from experience.)

[warpfairy]

That is interesting! Isabella is interested in this fact when she finds it.

When the last of her little problem is out of her system, she is abruptly no longer impelled to stay awake. She drops her head onto his chest and falls instantly asleep.

She talks in her sleep, in a mix of her native languages.

[dream_me_up]

That is sweet. He snuggles her for a little while.

But he's slept a lot more recently than she has, and now that they're not having near-continuous sex, he thinks maybe it's time to check on their navigation. He gets out of bed, attends to his badly neglected personal grooming, and then heads for the captain's chair to use the ship's computer.

[alicornucopia]

They are parked in interstellar space. There is a course entered to Betazed, ready to resume whenever the order is entered; it will take them another two days to get there at reasonable warp. The proximity alarm is operative and will beep at them if any debris or hails or distress signals make their way to the Prometheus.