This one-shot can be held on its own, but the point of his soft spots are an important part of my canon. Takes place during the show – not sure when, exactly, but definitely post-"Black Gorge". Likely still in the first season, though.
xxxxx
"GOIK!"
There was a crash and, grimacing, Piper finally relented and opened the hatch.
"Stork? Are you...?"
The Merb was on his back, his legs hanging in the air. At her voice, his head turned sharply - something that always unnerved her. It was so... Well, it just reminded her he wasn't human.
"Piper," he noted, and in an instant, he was standing before her, hands clenched together, that sheepish grin on his face. "Ah... Did I disturb you?"
She put a hand on her hip, letting the other, which was holding a book she'd just picked up on Atmosian history, hang to the side. "Stork, how could you not?" She entered the small room, one of his various little workplaces that no one else ever bothered to enter. "What on Atmos are you doing in here?"
On the table was a a pile of nuts and bolts, a few small tools, and a big chunk of something, but she had no idea what.
"Oh, you know me. Just... tinkering." He picked up the contraption, but it gave out a huge arc of visible energy, zapping him quite thoroughly, and he threw it back on the table, crashing to a wall once more.
"Oh my God!" she said, rushing to his side, dropping the book somewhere in the process. She reached behind his head - a weird experience with his greasy hair and two ears (which perked up at her approach), but couldn't... discern any blood. At least, it didn't seem wrong. Not that she knew the Merb's anatomy terribly well... He tended to have his own space. "Are you... okay?" She looked him over, but didn't see any damage. "Are you hurt?"
His breathing was fast, anyway, but he always seemed to be nervous about something, so she decided that wasn't something to worry about. His large eyes took her in with an expression she couldn't place. He tried to take a gulp of air, and finally swallowed. Ever so slightly, he seemed to be moving his face away from her, his big, yellow orbs never leaving her face. She leaned back onto her haunches, a hand on a knee.
"Can you speak?" she asked, descending into snark, a language she knew he understood.
He didn't speak, but nodded. He was definitely moving away. He slowly turned away from her, getting back to his feet, the green toes peeking out from his brown, leather wraps, the padding hardly making a sound on the floor. He busied himself with brushing off his outfit, hesitating as he covered his hindside, and Piper stood, too.
"What on Atmos are you working on in here?" she asked again, looking to the offending invention.
"I... I honestly don't know," he said, speaking finally, his voice a little weak. He cleared his throat, and returned to the table. "I made it late last night, fell asleep at my table." His voice was stronger, now. "I honestly don't remember what I was doing, and it's not very... kind to my... pokings." As if to illustrate, he'd picked up a random, long object with which to poke it, but the Merb's mistake bit back, making both of them flinch away.
"It seems dangerous," Piper said seriously. "I think we should get rid of it."
Stork gave one of his rare, warm smiles. "Ah, but if we got rid of everything dangerous, we'd have neither a crew or a ship."
He knelt down, observing it when he was at eye level, using his long neck to rotate around it without moving his body proper. It kind of gave her shivers to watch, both creepy and otherwise.
She quickly glanced about and found her book. "Well... You might be better off leaving it, for now. Maybe Junko can help later. He sure can take a..."
She blushed lightly, looking to him, and he grinned, catching her eye.
"A 'wallop'?" he asked, innocently.
She glared. "Shut up."
He chuckled darkly, but she just left the room, closing the hatch behind her before he could mock her any further. He watched her go, and didn't turn back to his invention until she'd left his sight. He held a finger near it, and the electrical field gave an arc. He grimaced, but held it, slowly retreating until it dissipated.
He hummed a thoughtful note. "The energy field is going down. Interesting." He stood back up, grabbing the previous poking object, and glanced at the door. After a moment, he heard nothing, and then touched it.
"G-g-gah-ah!" He was zapped back, but not as badly. He growled at it, looking to his rod, and made a hypothesis.
It was a bit crazy, but he wouldn't put anything past his subconscious. He was dangerous enough coherent.
xxxxx
"Alright, gang. Here's the deal."
As Stork joined the table from the helm (she was on autopilot and should be perfectly fine – and if not, he was nearby), Aerrow was going over the intel he and Finn had gathered while in port. Piper was already making notes about potential plans with their given supplies (not bothering to check those supplies, he noted - which tended to come back to bite her in the butt. Often. That would be Finn's doing) and making overly complicated battle tactics. Stork was trying to listen, but he had to confess that whlie his brain was registering and recording the spoken words, his conscious thoughts were... less intelligent.
It kept coming back to that tingling sensation he felt on his skin. Merbs had a couple of spots that were usually hard to get to, and yet Piper had a way of finding them - even by accident. Today she'd found another - he could still feel the touch of her fingertips, prodding at the back of his neck, into his hair, betwixt his ears - oh, right there. Right there between, under the ears. They were such an expressive part of his anatomy, it was natural they'd be sore at the place where they joined his head. And it only made sense that they'd be a sweet spot. But did Piper know how much of an effect that had on him?
Stork's eyes were darting around the console, like they usually did - because he was always thinking, plotting, planning, dreading. Five steps ahead, but this time he wasn't ahead of the march, he was in another room. He chanced a glance at Piper, who was smiling that, "I know just the thing!" smile. It sent a chill down his spine - because he knew that smile. He got it a lot (she made it a lot) and it usually ended up with an "I told you so" from him. And he did so love to complain.
He turned his head away, making sure his eyes didn't linger. Wouldn't do well to be caught staring at the navigator. It's not that it wasn't hard to do so, when he was locked up in this flying death trap with no one but her for company all the time. Even when the rest of the crew was on board, they both had an understanding of quiet, and on more than one occasion, she'd escaped to the helm for a bit of peace. They could share books and talk shop and not worry about being thought of as pretentious, because they were both intellectuals. She was a bit impractical in her methods - what was the term? Lawful good? He was certainly more chaotic. And evil, if he was honest with himself. Total opposites, but in many ways, total compliments.
But it wouldn't bode well to ruin an already testy union (and here he meant the Storm Hawks as a whole, not necessarily what relationship he may or may not have with the dark crystal magess) with the stresses and dramas that came with romance. Especially interspecies. It wouldn't do well at all. Not to mention the awkwardness of that naked moment...
He tried his best to make his frustrated sigh as silent as he could manage, his eyes glancing at the others to see if anyone had noticed. Piper gave him a smile - the "I know just the thing!" smile still. Finn looked at him with a bored, "How much longer will he go on?" before rolling his eyes and staring dumbly at Aerrow once more. Junko was rapt, and Radarr listening, but grooming a claw.
Then it was just him. Stork shifted his weight to the other foot as he tried to focus back on the conversation, his paranoia enough to get him off that track.
"...so Finn, I want you to check everyone's weapons for ammo. We want everyone stocked up. Junko, you arm the Condor. Piper, you..."
"...Make a plan of attack, already on it," she replied happily, holding up her writing utensil. Stork managed to hide his small chuckle.
Aerrow smiled, warm and soft. He really liked Piper. In a mating way, even. "Right. And Stork?"
Stork gave him his full attention.
"Let me know when we're in clear skies. Piper will plot the course."
That was hardly worth saying. "Right," he answered, anyway.
Pleased he'd done his job, Aerrow said another general word of encouragement, and left the bridge. With nothing else to do, Stork returned to the helm, checking the dials and read outs before placing his hand on the auto pilot switch.
"You alright, there?"
He'd just flipped the switch, and quickly flipped it back, turning to face her. "Beg pardon?"
Piper cocked her head to the side a smidge. She had a soft smile. That, "You're not like other guys" look.
Sometimes it was a good face, but other times it wasn't. It was getting harder to tell which was which. "You seemed a bit out of it in the meeting."
"How do you mean?" he asked, an eye glancing to the door absently. Who else had noticed, but said nothing?
Perhaps he wasn't as clever as he liked to believe. Just his luck.
"Well, Aerrow mentioned going to Terra Rex, and asked you for an approximate flying time. You answered him three days, but the only way to get there is by flying over the Black Gorge which I'm pretty sure you said you'd never do again," she said, as if pointing out a poker bluff by explaining that all of the aces were already on the table.
Stork very lightly glared. "We do have a couple velocity crystals, don't we?" he answered. It was another bluff.
She smiled. She caught it, but she wasn't going to ruin his fun quite yet. "True enough."
She turned to her maps, starting to plot a course, and Stork turned to the helm, feeling that prickling sensation creeping up on his skin again. He shut his eyes, feeling the fuzzies going from the nape of his hair, down between his ears, around to his jaw, down his neck and hugging that upper torso area that he so closely guarded. The ears buzzed most, but he could still just remember her arms grabbing him from behind, her hands clasping over that tender area and holding him, firm and hot and soft and irresistible - her murmuring sound of joy filling his ears as she held him for several seconds. He was so caught off guard, and even now he hadn't quite caught his balance.
"Stork?"
He blinked, catching himself, looking back at her. This time she was giving him a dubious look. He blinked again. "What?"
"You just did it again," she said.
He glared every so slightly, reproachful. "Did what?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"Zoned out," she answered. "You said something about the Black Gorge, and I asked you to repeat yourself, because I wasn't sure that's what you'd said, and you didn't respond."
He blinked at her once more. "I did?"
She slowly nodded. He licked his lips and swallowed, nervously. Oh, this was getting bad. This was getting very bad. He ran a hand over his face, not sure what to do with this situation. He could bluff, but she'd already caught him not paying attention. A lie would make her suspicious, and she'd pay even more attention to him, and catch more of this. And every time she didn't something like this to him, it took him a lot longer to recover. It'd taken over a week to get over the Black Gorge Incident.
Without thinking, he stretched up a hand to that tingly spot on the back of his neck, right under the ears. His panick died away as his delicate digits soothed away his worries, and he just drowned himself in those happy feelings. It was so warm, and soft, and so right, and he hadn't been so relaxed in so long...
"STORK!"
This time he gasped, taking a defensive pose, his eyes darting around at the loud calling of his name. But it took a moment to realise it was only Piper. And she was standing there with horror and concern on her face.
Mostly concern, but the fear was that of the unknown. She took the pencil still on her hands and put it on the table with a quick pop. She marched right up to him, adamant, and pointed a finger at him threateningly.
"You tell me what's going on RIGHT. NOW." And with those last two words, she jabbed him in the chest.
He visibly melted, and was soon crumpled in a heap. Although his sigh was a euphoric one, Piper panicked.
"Oh my god, Stork! Stork, what's wrong with you?" she whispered, not sure what to do. One hand slipped behind his head, once more cupping that place just below his ears, and his eyes closed, a slight smile on his face. Another hand sat on his chest, shaking him a bit. It was WONDERFUL.
"Please, tell me what's wrong..." she pleaded, her voice on the verge of tears. He couldn't believe how lovely it felt to be touched, and lifted his own hands, his left reaching up, along her neck and cupping the bottom of her head as well. It wasn't the same, but close. Close enough. His right trailed from the hand on his chest up her arm, his breathing getting deeper, but also quicker, and he let out small sighs.
"Piper," he said softly, his eyes hardly open,his head rising, and his lips touched hers.
In shock, she froze, but he didn't seem to notice. He kissed her again, and he could scarcely feel her lips respond. The hand in her hair twisted ever so slightly, softly, gently, and she too visibly melted. She was definitely kissing back now, softly, and that second hand finally made its way to her cleavage. This part wasn't too far off, and she was even BROWN which made it even more so right. Under his palm he could feel her heart rate and breathing quicken, and he flicked a tongue between her lips, his animal instincts truly getting the better of him, and the hand in her hair tugged ever so slightly.
She let out the faintest of moans that was intoxicating. He broke off from the kiss, pressing gently to encourage her to move to his neck - the natural progression with someone of his species. But lips didn't meet his smooth skin. Instead, a strained voice spoke from that alcove.
"Stork?"
And just like that, the spell was broken. The warm fuzzies were still there, but the growing heat in his groin stopped dead. It was like someone had poured ice water into his gut, and the first place it hit next was his mind. His eyes stood wide, open, his grip tightening in both hands reflexively, the panicked 'fright' instinct freezing him solid.
"Stork..." she tried again, this time more irritated. "Stork, you're hurting me."
And after the horror, the action. His grip loosened at her nape, carefully untangling from her hair, trying to cause her no more pain, the other moving to his chest, removing her offending hands. He pushed her away, gently, his face turned away, certain tears were to come. He curled into a ball, one hand wrapping around his neck, the other guarding the back of his head - the two places she oughtn't touch, but had. He could feel the ache starting to set in, and scrunched up his face, knowing that he'd just doomed himself to a life of misery. Forever.
"Stork...?" Her voice was soft, worried. He felt a hand touch an arm, but he recoiled.
"DON'T." He stiffened, rolling a little more away from her, curling his feet close into his protective positive. "Don't," he repeated, softer, forcing himself to be kind. "There are things you don't understand..."
Piper stayed there, on her hands and knees, trembling at the taste of what he'd given here. "W-what?" she asked. "Sex? Like... I don't know anything about sex?"
If it was possible, he curled tighter. She felt offended. She wasn't an idiot. She knew... of. Things. She read a lot. If that counted.
And then she had a horribly awkward thought. "That is what that was, right?"
A small noise escaped from his ball. For a long moment, they sat like that.
Finally, Piper sighed, sitting on her butt instead of her knees. She could see him relax ever so slightly. "So... What does this mean?"
No response from the Stork-ball. She hadn't been sure what he'd say, and saying nothing was usually a good second choice. In his mind, anyway.
"Are we... A 'thing' now?"
He seemed to stiffen every so slightly, and then curled himself out of his ball, peering over his shoulder with dark eyes. He was still holding himself with his arms, even if they were coming down a bit, but he seemed to be judging, questioning. She decided it was best to be receptive, and waited for him to completely uncoil.
His ending posture was on his feet, crouched down, hands on his knees, and staring at her curiously, as if she'd gone mad. He didn't often make that face to her. To Finn and Aerrow, yes, but not to her.
He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it, trying to consider how best to respond.
What was he to say? No, sorry, I didn't mean to grab you and try to take you here on the helm. It's not like you weren't enjoying it, so don't complain. God, it made me hot to hear you moan. Let's go back to my room? Or even best, Is there any way we can pretend this never happened?
He was interrupted from these variously bad choices by the sound of her giggling. He looked up at her with a frown. "What?"
"You did it again," she said, smiling. It was... not a new one, but one she liked to hide. She got it when she was thinking about something, hiding in her own head.
He blinked. Was that a... "I'm thinking about you, Stork" smile?
There he goes, caught again. He hoped he could keep in touch with the present conversation – at least until this... situation got sorted out.
"What... did I say this time?"
She got a coquetteish smile. Oh, no doubting that one. Also new. "I asked you if you had been enjoying yourself, and you replied 'oh, very much'."
If Merbs could blush. Instead, the pilot hung his head in shame. He even sighed.
"Cat's out of the bag..." she teased.
He groaned. It was true. No way to get that cat back into its designated holding receptacle. Cats were notoriously tricky to work with like that. And at that, his mind thought of another -
Back on topic! "I must say, you... do have a habit of putting me in a spin," he confessed, deciding it was too late for pretending he had no feelings for his navigator. Even if his feelings were far more... primal than the romantic notions Aerrow had for her, it still complicated things. in fact, with some species, that complicated things worse.
She put her head on her head, and he tried his best to focus on the positive-negative design created between her cheek and her fingers. "So..." Her moving jaw made things more interesting. "Out of curiousity... How long have I been putting you in a spin?" It was curiousity and excitement, and Stork grimaced.
"A while, actually," he replied. "But... it's more because you have a habit of... touching places you oughtn't."
Perhaps not thinking, her eyes went straight to his groin, and he shut his eyes. It's true, humans were rather simple creatures.
"No, not there," he said, perhaps impatiently. "Merbs have more than one erogenous zone to worry about." He gestured to the area marked by his collarbones and sternum. "Here..." And here, he ducked his head to show between that sweet spot between his ears. "And here."
Fingers that weren't his own touched that spot, tenderly massaging the gentle scalp. He let out the faintest of sounds, and she seemed encouraged, and brought her second hand in. His hands had been caught in mid air, and hung there, uncertain, his whole body shut down but for the tiny happy noises that she kneaded out of him by rubbing that sensitive skin. When she got into massaging the ears, he actually gave a moan, and his head lowered itself into her lap, his hands falling limply at his side. After a wonderful (seemed like days of bliss) while, one hand slipped down his jawline, causing his whole spine to recoil ever so slightly, and her fingers trailed at his chest, making him moan, and melt into her arms, his own wrapping around her. She barely let a small laugh escape, with one hand stroking his chest, and another kneading his hair. The long muzzle nuzzled her, a hand coming forward to stroke her own chest before choosing a breast and caressing it, his mouth finding her -
Her fingers clenched into his hair and he withdrew from the breast. Flushed, but not terrified, he found himself on top of her, but it was obvious who had done who. He looked up at her, and she gently stroked his hair again, and his eyelids drooped, and he let out a happy sound.
She smiled, that "Stork" smile, and it made him smile, too. He arched himself up and gave her a good and proper kiss, his arms wrapped around her, one hand sliding up to her neck, while the other cradled a hip, her hands lightly holding at his sweet spots. It was a tender kiss, and she readily returned it. But as he broke off, found she was rather hungry.
He smiled ever so softly. "I'm afraid you've tasted blood, and now you want more," he murmured, just loud enough so she could hear. He lifted a hand to stroke around her ear, curious as to the reaction he'd get.
She closed her eyes - a good reaction. "I... suppose you could say that."
He rested his forehead on hers – odd to do with their different face structures, but not enough for it to be off-putting. Just different. "We... do have work to do," he said, although he really didn't want to do anything but continue this experiment. Maybe not here... Or maybe here. Either or. He wasn't picky. So long as he got to keep playing.
She sighed, and he could see she needed encouragement, too.
She took the hand from his hair – he bristled a smidge at her fingers disappearing through his hair - and brushed back her own. "Yeah, I know..." She let down the other hand, too, and he returned to his previous, crouched position, but this time much closer to her.
"We can always do this another time," he said, smiling. The fact that they could was already far more than he'd have ever hoped for. "I have frightful bad luck, and am therefore in no need to rush anything good that might happen to me."
At that, her face fell. He frowned, not sure what he'd said wrong. "What's wrong?" he said. And then bitterness. "It's happening already, isn't it?"
She laughed, sadly, and reached up to wipe a tear from her eye. Stork reached up and brushed away another - they were cool to the touch.
"No, it's not bad," she reassured him. "It's... it's good."
He gave her a dubious look. "Crying is good?"
"No, it's just..." There was his smile again. "That's probably the most beautiful thing anyone's ever said to me."
He blinked. "What? 'Don't worry, we can always shag later'?"
She laughed, slapping him on the shoulder. He didn't flinch or react. But she kept her hand there, and then gently slid it to his collarbone. He gently nuzzled into it, but his eyes never left hers.
"Do we really have to work now?" she asked finally.
He gave her a wicked smile. "One doesn't really HAVE to do anything," he answered. "But at the same time, we hold a moral obligation and a responsibility to our fellow crewmates. And since we at least need to get a course plotted and going, yes, we really have to work now." He reached a hand to hers, and gently removed it, giving it a kiss before returning it to her person. "You got plot, and I'll go pilot. And when we get into open air, Aerrow wants a report."
At the name, she looked away - from impatience, embarassment or what, he couldn't tell - "...and when Aerrow gets his report..." he continued, pausing, waiting for her to turn her hazel eyes back on his. "We'll tell THEM to be on Bridge Duty. And then you and I can go romp about as you like."
She smiled big. "Where no one can see us, that is."
"That is entirely up to you," he replied. He blinked. "What?"
She shook her head, getting up to her feet. "Oh, Stork..."
"What?" he demanded.
She said nothing, sighing instead. He gave a small huff, but decided not to question her any further. The fuzzy tingles were alive and well, but they'd been satiated for a bit, and at least now, Stork could concentrate. On work. For now.
xxxxx
Sidenote: It's a little subtle, but the experiment Stork is tinkering with in the first bit is a reference to Gune's experiment in Titan A.E. – he was the science officer of the Valkyrie, and throughout the film tinkers with a tiny contraption he made in his sleep. He doesn't know what it does, but knows that he used a particularly unstable chemical in it, and it has a shiny red button. It's a source of much puzzlement and temptation. Stork doesn't seem the kind to work IN his sleep, but very tired, perhaps. "I've tasted blood and I want more" is a line from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, where the singing party is a virgin who's... just ceased to be a virgin.
