In you culture, is "dearest" too strong a word to use when two people are fond of each other? And is "fond" too strong a word to use when two people enjoy flirting with each other?
I enjoy you. Even now. I smile picturing your face. Angara are free with our emotions, and it feels normal for me to lay mine at your feet. I hope this is not too strange for your species and that you can comfortably accept them.
I enjoy you-but more than that, I adore your strength and courage and beauty.
How did she respond to his unguarded affection? Never before had she been approached in such a genuine manner.
Earth space-ports mainly followed the the coasts. Of Leanna's many visits with her family, none had wandered past the N7 and military installations and surroundings. Her memories of the human "home planet" were full of far-off beaches she barely got to visit, and a days at a time spent in sterile air-conditioned transfer stations before they would inevitably return to the Citadel. There the air was still filtered to death, but the rest of her surroundings were filled to bursting with a dozen different aliens forms of life as races conducted business amidst a hundred world biome settings.
Unlike Elaaden, no one ever set the station settings to 'broil on high until done'. Even after the reset it was still hotter than she could stand without constant aid. There was a faint blip in her ear every 3 minutes like clockwork to inform her of just how far down her life support suit systems had drained. SAM and Liam had commented on previous missions that she drained them faster than anyone else. Her body couldn't keep up with the Heleus cluster's conditions. Not after the first twenty years of her life were on stations, or for the last five before cryo sleep, on a chilly planet that was only hospitable to working outside during the summer months when the sun hardly set on their dig sites.
Jaal seemed almost non-plussed. He also seemed surprisingly dry considering that the vault reset quadrupled the humidity on the planet from a stark two percent to nearly twenty within weeks.
"How do you do it?" She panted.
"Do what ?"
"Stand this heat… you're not even sweating!"
He laughed quietly, and adjusted his weapon strap. "We don't sweat like you do. It's more of a mucus-"
"Nevermind," She groaned. He just chuckled again and held his gaze on their destination. The pile of cargo crates making up the relay tower were already visible, but there would be a steep, albeit short hike to get up to where it was set to be positioned. As she watched him (for lack of anything better to distract herself with), she noticed that the flaps and curvature around his head moved slightly, like a bellows. A few secondary-school biology and physics lessons echoing in her head later, and she found herself laughing at the thought of him being like a leaf and a panting dog at the same time.
He shot her a confused glance. Without the comm line flicked on, most of the volume of her laugh stayed inside her helmet.
Beep, " fifty percent life support. " They began the climb up the rocky hill towards the Cargo Containers. The survey had been correct about the small cave on the ascent up, and she noted it as they climbed.
"Beep," Her lifeline reminded her, "Thirty-eight percent life support," As they ran the programming on the automated driller to reinforce the foundation.
"Beep bip bip-! Seventeen percent power remaining-" It grew more insistent as they heaved the central pillar into place.
It bleated out an insistent, "Life support critical, four percent remaining-" As she swiped the starting commands on her omni-tool and they watched the cargo-crates unfurl like flowers, and then ratchet together like pyramid of circus performers.
"Job's done," She spat across the comm line.
"Three percent-" Her suit continued. The warning had been counting down continuously since ten percent, and she was already thinking about the feel of comparatively cool eighty-degree rocks against her back instead of third-degree burn 135 degrees that it was outside.
Downhill was significantly faster. If her system wasn't running on fumes, she could have blasted her jets down in one leap. Her suit was nearly vibrating now. A wrathful cloud of flashing warning signs in multiple colors declared the decimals of percent. She cracked the helmet the moment she passed the shadow of the cave entrance, gratefully inhaling a lung-full of air that didn't smell like her own re-filtered sweat.
"1.3, 1.2 -" She pressed the manual shut-down and quickly scanned the surroundings, to be safe. Aside from a fringe of craggy rocks, the majority of the small cave was a slide of fine sand, cross-rippled as if waves of silt had splashed against the walls mere moments before.
"Nothing but traces of adhi dung. Eyw.. no signs of sentinel alloy or chemical contaminant, so likely no visitors recently. Condensation on the walls, for emergency-"
She turned to repeat the good news to Jaal, but he was looking at her with a fascinated expression, his nostrils flaring wide open.
"Shit. I should have checked on you. Come on. That was a hell of a lot of heat, are you-"
"I am fine," He insisted, closing the distance between them in one long stride to lean his face down to her neck with a long inhale.
"I,ah-" She stammered. A giddy smile spread over her face; from the feel of his breath on her neck or the heat stroke, she couldn't be certain. "I'm glad. What's this for?"
"You smell delicious," he purred, kissing her just under the corner of her jaw. The touch of his lips lingered ike static, trickling down her chest as she exhaled gratefully.
"Let me remove some of my gear before you eat me up, okay?" She murmured, popping the connections between the breastplate and pauldrons with a satisfied grunt. Whisps of steam escaped as the circulation systems contracted. "Now, you didn't spike that perfume you gave me, did you?"
A laugh rolled in the back of his throat as he smiled back at her. With a shake of his head, he leaned in to plant another kiss at the nape of her neck, the current flowing cold across her collarbone like a snowflake. "I smell a little of the Harl'an flower. The rest is you, intoxicating as ever."
"Same back at you," she stammered. She fumbled to find the main frame release, tucked up under the inner chestplate. It finally gave way, and the ratcheting closures released. The tepid air against her side was like opening a fridge compared with the heat inside the suit.
His gaze began to weigh on her. Eyes like deep lagoons scrutinized her, following the zig-zaging line of the suit. The seam opened up from collar bone to armpit and down to her hipbone; he was entranced. Over the heat of the rocks, overheated iron like an old cast iron griddle, was the bouquet of personal sents he mixed for himself, reminding her of tropical orchids and lillies. Below that, she could smell him now: the crisp smell of a trickling stream, green like damp moss after a warm summer rain. It was a surprisingly nostalgic smell, like brief glimpses of earth through a window, and tiny serenity ponds in the human sector of the Citadel.
"You really are a wonder," He said finally, tracing the top edge of her suit delicately with one finger. Pausing at the opening point, he looked back up to meet her eyes. "A creature of such strangeness and beauty."
It was all she could do to stare back at him, holding her breath between small sighs, reveling in how he looked at her as a worshipper might take in a shrine at the end of a pilgrimage. "You're pretty amazing too," she blurted out, a nervous giggle escaping as she relaxed back into the rock wall. With a coy tip of her head she looked him up and down as well, and curled her lips in to hold in a squeal of delight. "And I've been hoping to… see a little more of you."
"Is that so?"
"I mean… I've seen, but… I want to-" Her fumbled with her words, her thoughts dissolving entirely as he smiled and backed away.
"I want that as well," he replied. Methodically he removed the layers of his clothing piece by piece and carefully set them together in a pile. Watching him with hawkish interest, she marveled at the deep crevices of his chest, the strange dappling of his skin that covered him like an apple, and the ropey muscles that were always hidden by thick armor.
With a whistle she thought might condense in the warm air, she drank him in, eyes trailing down the parallel v's of his shoulders before he stood straight and turned back around to her. As her eyes dipped lower, she was caught again by the strange shape of his manhood, and felt her eyes widening despite any attempt she could muster to keep her casual demeanor.
"Do you need help?" He asked over the top of her obvious dismay.
"Oh, I - yes, actually, I," She spun once ungracefully, reaching up and over to the right-hand edge of the jet pack. "There's a tab under the right edge that will unlatch everything. Normally when the suit's powered, it's all automatic, and-" She cringed slightly as the connected interlocks between the suit's systems twisted slightly sideways, before arching backwards and opening like a seed pod, which she was more than happy to finally be shucked from.
Jaal accepted the weight of the suit and set it next to his things with barely a grunt of exertion, before turning back where she leaned with eyes half-closed from relief.
"Ninety degrees never felt so cold!" She mused, plucking at the thin liner shirt to get some semblance of a breeze against her soaked chest.
"Simply lovely," he marveled.
"Funny to think you threatened to kill me six months ago," She cooed as she rolled the tank top over her head. The thin poly-knit stuck to every surface as she fought to free herself. It finally snapped away, leaving her skin covered in beads of sweat, growing damper as Jaal stepped to her, spiralling a hand from the edge of her waist around to her lower back, her nerves lighting with hairlines of energy as he touched her.
"READING UNUSUAL ENERGY SPIKES-" SAM chimed in, before she cut him off with rapid, "Priority only setting, user logoff verification Alpha-niner-Charlie-Octo-Zebra. Two hours."
"Was that-?" Jall began to ask.
She only nodded urgently, pressing up on tip-toe to finally lock lips with him. A tingling chill and a rolling heat washed over her, as impressions of a tropical floor and dark, tranquil jungle flooded her mind.
The kiss broke like a gust of wind, and she winced at the pinpricks of rough rocks digging into her backside as he pressed into her, her sweat-drenched skin mixing with a faintly slippery film across his. Each labored breath was echoed by his, each heartbeat doubled in her chest, and the sensation of feeling his muscles moving as she tried to move her own at the same time was dizzying.
She'd been part of an Asari mind meld before. It would have been familiar to loose herself within another person's desire, but to feel their passion, their need and their sensations at the same time was as disorienting as it was exhilarating.
"I need… down," was all she could manage between brief sparks and kisses. Her inner ear was starting to play tricks with her, and the rocks were distractingly harsh.
He lowered her down with incredible tenderness and agonizing slowness, and broke away to gaze at her again. "What am I supposed to do with that reverie?" She thought. In all her years, and both sides of dark space, no other lover had cherished her like this. It made her curl up a little, suddenly protective of the last barrier she still wore, in the shape of her ugly granny-panty suit underwear. Her knuckle was between her teeth as she looked at him again, heaving quietly over her. The full length of his sex was visible now, strangely soft looking, translucent and almost spiraled in shape.
With a curious touch, she reached for it, and delighted as he shuddered beneath the faintest graze of her fingertips.
Solemn eyes cast down to her chest, her lowered himself to one nipple, and began to suck. Immediately stars crept into her vision, and her nerves lit like firecrackers. "Oh god, that-" She chanted dumbly. His hands cupped the outside of her breasts before she could shout anything stupider. With struggling hands she peeled her underwear down, gasps of shock cranked up to imploring whimpers by the time the soaked fabric was caught at her knees.
"Take me!" She screamed, and fell back against the sand with an exhausted slap as he released her nipples, moving his hands up to stroke up over her arms.
"Take you?" He questioned, arms parallel to hers and hips lowered to prop against her thigh. "An idiom?"
A quiet hum reverberated along her arms, like a motor gently spinning to life. She fought to focus on the words. "He must be messing with me… surely?" She thought. "Con… consummate?" She stammered, "umm… mate? In...ter… course?" She forced out the words between clenched teeth. Never had she felt such mortifying embarrassment, since her first dom bent her over her knee after she'd lost one too many dares back at the science academy.
With his fingers tight around her hands, he swept his lips across hers, and whispered, "If you're ready." All he needed was to look into her eyes, hazy with need and dripping with angry tears to confirm. His hands left hers, and travelled down her stomach, leaving a smooth trail through the sweat on skin and a line of twitching muscles in his wake. She was so ready for him that it hurt to relax her legs as he peered down to explore her hips. Her cunt had seeped so much she could feel the sand clinging to the underside of her legs like a bad craft project. The way he pressed his hand down was strangely methodical, testing the waters around her lips and tracing the smooth skin at the opening of her sex with a calculating look that soon softened to excitement, an eager smirk that matched with an uptick in the energy around him.
She nodded as he kneeled to enter, pulling her legs up to align. His manhood felt soft at her entrance, pliant and bulbous, like it couldn't fit. He slid up and down a little, a flash of uncertainty crossing his face before she reached down to spread herself open with two fingers.
With the first inch in, a pulse struck through her like touching a battery, leaving her charged in it's wake. The next few inches were easier, and the pulse returned as a gentle cascade, the engine-like rhythm humming in her ears growing louder, more insistent.
"I can't take much," she pleaded. "I'm close."
"We are close," He groaned, hitching up her hips into his hands, fingertips spread upward against her lower back. As he rolled his hips against hers, achingly slow, she sobbed and gasped with each pass, all the muscles inside her pulling inwards, pleading for the next stroke, clenching hard against him.
"No, I mean-" She whimpered as he began to thrust a little faster, his eyes half closed as he gripped her backside harder. "Climax. I'm going to-"
She didn't get the chance to finish as he locked his lips to hers. Their tongues swirled together as everything went white-hot, moaning into his mouth as she dug her nails into his arms, her legs twitching with delight as her toes curled with the tension of hitting the peak of her climax, and dissolving into the slick throbbing feeling as he continued to pound into her as she finally fought away from the kiss and cried out.
He moaned into her neck as his fingertips clenched into her backside. Pinpricks of numbness tiptoed down her spine, and she stared at the ceiling in a relaxed haze as the world fell away, until all she could concentrate on was the slow twitch of him softening further inside her, and her inner muscles twitching in pleasant rebuke.
Gently, he pulled away to stroke her hair as he smiled down at her. "That was-"
"Amaaazing-" she interrupted drunkenly. "So worth a little bit of scars on my arms."
"Hahaha, you wouldn't have those scars if you'd been more direct with me," He soothing strokes his hand down her cheek before placing a sweet kiss just above her eyebrow.
"I know," She smirked, wriggling her hips to remind him they were still intertwined, reveling in the little shiver that went through him as she licked her lips and concentrated on tightening the inner walls of her womanhood.
"I would stay with you here, like this, forever if I could," He breathed into her hair, his voice heavy with renewed longing and exhaustion at once.
"Me too," she whispered, nuzzling the side of his face as she sighed. "I just feel lucky we had this much time-"
"Closing in on your navpoint, ETA five minutes," Gil's disgruntled voice chimed in over the comms. It suddenly struck her how familiar and universal the feeling was to be caught with someone else balls-deep in you, five minutes late for an appointment.
"Re-establish login connection Alpha-Omega-Five-Five!" She rattled off at top speed. With a jolt they separated, soft waves of connection draining away, the loss of poignant as she returned to her own skin, only a single crisp set of feelings to deal with, and the shadow of a lost set of senses.
"I AM GLAD TO SEE YOUR VITALS RETURNED TO-"
"Not now, SAM!" She snapped as she did her best to whip sand from encrusted underwear and fit a salt-encrusted sweaty muscle shirt back in place. "No time, no time!" she grumbled.
Giving up on getting the undergarments back on, she rolled onto the armor and pulled the components in place as best she could. With Jaal's help (and a heaping dose of his chastising laughter) she had the armor snapped back into position, save for her helmet and jetpack, both of which were useless without power anyhow.
Peebee and Drack greeted them at the cave's entrance with equally smug looks on their faces.
She shot them down with a snap of metal on metal as she collapsed her rifle to her shoulder. "What are you two grinning about?"
Drack snorted and turned back to the Nomad, but Peebee's smile flicked between knowing and uncertainty. "Oh, um… Gil's got the Nomad working, should be close enough for you to run. SAM says your life support's completely shot."
"Yup," she replied as she snapped the helmet onto her head for the short run back to the safety of the restored Nomad.
As they piled back in for the return trip to the Tempest, she flicked the comm channel to private link to Jaal. "Shit," she giggled. "I think I left my underwear back in that cave-"
"Don't worry," He chuckled softly. "I retrieved my momentos."
Peebee continued to glance sidelong at them for the rest of the trip as Leanna's face burned red, and didn't stop looking aghast at Jaal until the Nomad safely locked into the docking ramp.