A/N: NSWF section in here, you have been warned.

Part Three – Sirius

Shopping with Bremerton was always fun and in many, many ways I was thankful for the break from the base atmosphere. As we were walking to the lingerie shop I stopped to look at myself in a shop window, just make sure everything was still sitting right, I adjusted my white top, Bremerton suggests I go with something button up and leave the top two undone. I had to admit it worked really well with the red, white, and blue plaid pattern on the pleated skirt she had paired with it, the long black stockings, however, they reminded me a little too much of my uniform… ahh well, they looked good and were made of nice soft cotton this time.

Still, all in all, I looked good, I'd even left my hair down today, not that I didn't like the way I normally wore it, but sometimes it was nice to give my head a rest and not have my hair up all the time. From up ahead of me, I hear Bremerton call back to me, "Yeah, yeah you look good, but come on! There are so many good shops to check out!"

One last check of my makeup and I spin on my heels and hurry to catch up with her. I was so thankful that today was a sunny day, doubly so with how thin this shirt was. It didn't take us long to get to the first shop, I always feel a little weird going into a store like this one, likely due to my artificial origins. As I open the door, a little bell gets rung and a lady that might be in her twenties looks up from the counter, looking us up to see us before returning to her magazine.

I go over to the tables and start to look at what's been put on display, seems like animal print seems to be in vogue at the moment… not my style. I sigh inwardly getting underwear is always such a pain… almost as bad getting shirts that fit right.

I look over to Bremerton who is looking over the thongs, putting several into her little basket and I ask her, "Are they actually comfortable?"

She smiles at me and tosses me a pair of red ones as she says, "I think so, they don't really ride up and they blend in when I have on gym pants."

I shrug and put them in my basket along with some fine lace pairs, and then I make my way over to the bras and start looking back and forth from them, again ones that look like they'd give support for me look so… well basic. I mean usually, I wear a type that I can have on with the dress I wear, so strapless in the office but I'm always worried I'm going to bend over and spill out the top. I sigh to myself and shrug taking the nicest looking one off the rack and putting it in my basket. I give another look around the room and see Bremerton picking over swimsuits and bikinis.

Once we've paid we head off to grab a drink at a coffee shop before heading off to our next stop, the hot springs. Along the way, Bremerton turns to face me with her drink as she asks, "Want to see a trick I learned from Marblehead?"

I shrug and sip my bubble tea that seemed to be everything she needed as she put her bubble tea on her bust and started to drink from it, with no hands.

I can't help it, I laugh. She takes her drink back in hand and says, "Now you try it."

I shrug and get mine up there, oh that's cold!

I just get it balanced and take a sip when I look up and see him coming down the road. My cheeks get so hot, and in my state of surprise, while I try and balance my drink on my boobs, I stop and manage to spill the drink all over my chest. Great… and I'm in a thin, white… well light green see-through, top now.

I see that he sees me, and my spilled drink and his eyes dart up, trying not to look… bless his heart… but now my boobs are damp, sticky, and cold… why me? When I groan, Bremerton starts to laugh as she says, "Good thing we're headed to the bathhouse."

Yeah, still I'd rather have not spilled my drink…

Bremerton bumps her right hip against my left one as she leans over and whispers, "I'll meet you there if you want to hang back and talk to Commander Fletcher."

Before I can say anything she's gone, leaving me holding a bag with nothing but underwear in it and a top that is totally showing my white bra that is slowly turning a light green like my shirt thanks to my bubble tea. I'm not sure what was worse right now, him seeing the mole on my thigh or him being able to see through my shirt right now. I sigh and take the one napkin I've got and start to wipe off my bust while I grumble to myself about my luck.

The Commander comes over, taking out a handkerchief and handing it to me as he says, "Maybe this could help?"

I give him a weak smile as I take it and start to dab up the fluid as I tell him, "Thanks…"

After a few moments, I ask him, "So what brings you into town today?"

He shrugs as he tells me, "I had nothing to do today and for some reason, my luggage from the mainland hasn't arrived yet and I need some things. What about you?"

I use a foot to slide the bag behind me as I blush and say, "I needed to do some shopping too. But I was on my way to the bathhouse with Bremerton for a soak in the Sakura Empire style hot springs there."

He blinks a couple of times and before he can ask I tell him, "It's an open-air, but women and men bath in separate sections."

I find I giggle when he looks visibly disappointed and I offer out as a consolation prize, "I was planning on doing some stargazing tonight, I wouldn't turn down some company…"

Take the hint… last few times we've been alone we've made out… not that much more than that could happen tonight thanks to the biology I've been stuck with.

I see it as it clicks in his deep blue eyes as he says to me, "I'll see you later tonight then… at the same place?"

I smile and touch his left arm as nod and ask, "Do you need this back?"

There is a moment of confusion on his face before he recalls loaning me the handkerchief and he tells me, "Hang on to it, I'd hate for you to spill something else on yourself."

I want to be mad, but I smile and say, "Tonight then, after dark."

He nodded again and heads off, I turn to watch him go and I bite my lower lip, he really does have a nice butt. Once he's out of sight I stop at a drugstore to grab some more tampons and a box of condoms… always best to be prepared.

After getting my stuff stowed in a locker at the bathhouse, taking my big towel and my 'modesty' towel, once I've washed and rinsed off I slowly lower myself into the water with an audible sound of pleasure. I look over and see Bremerton with a little floating tray beside her and what looks like a clay pot and two cups. I make my way over to her and she pours me a glass of this clear liquid and says, "Cheers!"

We clink the little cups together and slam back the fluid it burns on the way down, but it's nice and she asks me, "So what did you and Commander Fletcher talk about?"

I blush a little as I stretch and fill her in on my plans for tonight and she cuts right to the point, "Are you going to conduct boarding operations?"

My blush gets way; way deeper and I shake my head as I tell her, "I'm not planning on it, that monthly occurrence we get, arrived for me yesterday."

She sighs and leans her head back on her towel as she asks, "Why do we even suffer that?"

Huh… guess she doesn't know. I lean in and whisper in her ear, "I did a ton of research this week and I found out we can get pregnant…"

"Shut. Up." She says back to me, looking shocked.

"I know, I must've read a ton of reports, some seem to allude to it, and one outright stated it… Some kansen called Akagi got gave birth to a hybrid a year ago. The really strange part is that the hybrid looked exactly like her, just smaller." I tell her while I pour myself some more of this liquid.

She bilks a few times and then asks, "So what took you so long to get here, anyway?"

I blush again and whisper to her about having to stop for more tampons and I grabbed some condoms so that I'd be ready for it if and or when things happened… I'm not ready to be a mother… at least not for a while.

XXXX

XXXX

Later that day I'm looking at what to wear tonight, I can't dress like I'm expecting something to happen, lest I alert my sisters that I'm starting to see Commander Fletcher, but at the same time, I don't want to look too relaxed for him either since I don't want to send the wrong message. I look at the new underwear I picked up today and try on the red one that Bremerton gave me.

With a shrug I slip it on I'm surprised at how comfortable it actually feels… like I don't feel like I've got a wedgie going on back there. I twist slightly to see how the band sits just over my hips and that it leaves my stern looking good and shapely. I look to my bathroom and see the bra that I had on today hanging off the showerhead to dry after I washed it, damn it is my favorite one too… I go back to the bag and pull out the red one I picked up today that kind of goes with the thong I put on. Once that's done I get on a simple black skirt that went to my knees before I grabbed a red thin sweater and black cotton stocking again. Looking at myself in the mirror I groaned, this is too done up for stargazing… back to square one…

I spent close to an hour trying to find something before I settled with a pair of torn jeans and a loose-fitting tee-shirt; he'll just have to be ready for me to look this relaxed I guess. Putting my hair up like normal was the last step before I grabbed my really good telescope, this time however I packed some snacks and a blanket… I had a funny feeling I was gonging to need it tonight.

Once I'm up at the hill the sun is just starting to go down, so I lay out the blanket, put the bag of snacks down, and get my really good telescope set up before pulling out a star chart and setting up so I'll be able to look at some of the planets in the solar system. I notice that I'm feeling nervous, I guess I'm really looking forward to some alone time with Commander Fletcher.

I look around the hilltop and smile to myself, it looks good, so I go over to my pack of snacks and take out some oxy-cola and take a sip, I'll need the caffeine hit to be able to stay up tonight. Just as I finish my sip I hear a rustle in the bushes and I see him step out from there, a bag, blanket, and a telescope. As he sees what I'd set up he smiles and puts down his blanket at the end of mine and puts his bag down before getting his telescope set up.

I'll admit it, even in cargo pants he looked good, when he turns to face me I smile at him and step closer to him and I ask, "What are you hoping to see tonight?"

To my surprise, he places his hands on my hips and whispers in my ear, "Whatever you want to show me."

My cheeks get so hot, I hadn't expected that answer. I stepped back a little and ran a hand through one of my pigtails and shifted a little while I bit my lower lip, I mean honestly, what did I expect to happen? I sigh and take out my phone, and bring up the compiled file I had on the relationships between humans and kansen and said, "You should read this."

His head tilts to the side as he takes my phone and sits down to read through everything, as he gets to the last page I sit beside him, drawing my knees to my chest, resting my chin on them, and looking out over the water. Once he hands me back my phone he's silent for a few moments before he says, "So, you're worried you'd get pregnant?"

I nod a little, true that was one of my worries, the other being that this Akagi had her child taken from her to be studied, I'd hate to have that happen to me if I got into the same position as her. I hear him sigh and ask, "Then do you want to call all of this off? Because I can't promise that'd never happen if we do try and have a relationship."

I turn my head and rest my right cheek on my knees to look at him as I sigh out, "I don't know… I know there are things I want to do with you, but this information has me scared."

He nods, placing his arms behind him and leaning back as he looks skyward and says, "The idea of being a father scares the hell out of me, but that is so far off in the future right now that I'm not going to stress over it."

Turning his blue eyes on me he smiles and adds, "For now, I'd like to explore things with this smart, funny, and beautiful young woman that I met out here a few weeks ago."

I smile and scoot a little closer to him; I have to admit it that was kind of smooth on his part. I touch his right hand with my own and lean in to kiss him. His lips are soft and I kind of giggle as his whiskers tickle my upper lip. As our kiss starts to deepen, I move to straddle his lap, bending forward to keep kissing him while I feel his hands go up from my thighs to my hips and around to grip my stern.

When I feel his hands there I start to rock my hips back and forth on him, the pleasure I'm getting out of this is great, I move my hands to push him flat on his back, breaking our kiss.

He looks up at me and I smile at him, pulling my shirt up and off before I lean forward and start kissing him again. I feel his hands slide up my back to where the clasp is on my bra, I feel him undo it. I break our kiss again to sit upright and take off my bra. My cheeks get so red as I let him look at me, his eyes are locked on my bust, a smile on his face as he says, "You are so beautiful."

I smile and slide lower down his lap, I feel my heart rate pick up as my face gets level with his crotch, I can see that he's gotten aroused by this, I use my teeth to pull down his zipper, letting him out into the cool night air. I watch as he shivers in the cooler air, my eyes go wide as I look at him; this is the first one I've ever seen. I softly touch the end of it, it's soft at the end, and I slide my hand down it. As I do this he groans and shutters guess he likes that…

I open my mouth slightly and kiss the tip and he groans louder and I slip him into my mouth and start to lick and bob my head back and forth, all the while he is moaning and groaning. One of his hands reaches down and starts to play with my nipples, rolling them, it feels so nice. I pick up my pace and he pants out, "I'm… going… to…"

The next thing that happened surprised me, I felt him twitch and pulse in my mouth as I suddenly tasted something salty. My eyes go wide as I remember what Vestal told me about sex and how it works, he just got off… I don't have a lot of options right now so I swallow before I let him out of my mouth; my cheeks are bright red, his to as he says, "Sorry…"

I shake my head and scoot up closer to him, to my surprise he starts kissing me, while one of his hands finds its way under my pants and underwear and he starts to pleasure me, rolling, caressing, and teasing me down below. I start grinding harder against his hand and moaning into his mouth while we kiss, he defiantly knows what he's doing. It doesn't take too long before I feel my body tighten up and then release, waves of pleasure running through me as I moan loudly.

After a few more moments we just lay against one another, he had pulled his blanket over both of us, my head resting on his chest; I draw little circles on his chest as I say to him, "This was good."

He kisses the top of my head before saying, "If you think that was good…"

I laugh and lean up to kiss him before I tell him, "Maybe next time, but not tonight."

I push myself off of him, but he takes my hand and pulls me back down, and suggests, "Let's sleep here, out under the stars tonight."

With a grin on my face, I snuggle back down in close with him, resting my right arm across his chest, while his right-hand goes around my back to rest on my right hip as he tells me, "When it's just us, call me Austin."

Pushing myself back up I kiss him as I say, "I think I can do that Austin."

As we keep kissing I slip my hand back under his pants and start to pleasure him again. I may not be able to let him in me tonight but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy tonight.

XXXX

XXXX

My eyelids are having a hard time keeping the sunlight out just as my ears pick up slow breathing and a slow heartbeat, memories of last night coming back to me. I open my eyes and see that I'm still cuddled against Austin and I remember that I still have a tampon in and I sigh, I need to go behind the bushes and change it out… I don't want an infection down there.

As I get out from the covering blanket I smile at Austin sleeping away still, I grab my bag and head behind the bushes, to change out what I need to change out.

As I'm back there I hear him wake up as he says, "Morning…"

After a moment he adds, "Intrepid?"

I call back from behind the bushes that I'm back here behind the trees, once I'm done changing out tampons, I pull up my underwear and pants before heading back into the clearing to kiss him good morning. His hands go onto my hips as and he tells me, "I don't think I've slept so well in a long time…"

I smile up at him before I slip out of his embrace and start to pack up our impromptu camp out. We had just gotten things packed up when I hear movement in the bushes, I turn just in time to see Shangri-La come out from them, and she spots me first and says, "There you are! When you…"

She trailed off as she spotted the Commander then she looked back to me then back to him and she asked, "What?"

Austin blushed and shifted uncomfortably and I felt a chill run down my spine, I hadn't thought about having to explain things to anyone… crap.

The three of us stood in silence for a few moments and I chose to be the first to do anything. Lacing my fingers through Austin's right hand I said to Shangri-La, "I'm not going to hide this."

My sister pushes her glasses up and tilts her head to the side before asking, "Hide what exactly?"

Really? For all your book smarts Shangri-La you don't get the implications of me holding his hand, saying I'm not going to hide this… really?

I sigh before I reach over and turn Austin's head to face me and I kiss him, deeply before I say back to my sister, "That, I'm not going to hide that."

I see her cheeks get red and she coughs into a hand before asking, "Ho… How long have you two…"

I look at Austin, searching his blue eyes for anything, I think I see it; he's going to follow my lead on this, with a nod I turn my attention back to Shangri-La as I tell her, "Not long. We've danced around the subject for a couple of weeks, last night we decided to really explore this now."

I was expecting my sister to spout some obscure rule or regulation; rather she just smiled at me and crossed over to embrace me tightly as she said, "I'm so happy for you Intrepid, tell me everything later!"

I look to Austin and see him shift a little as he asks, "E… everything?"

Shangri-La winks at him as she teases, "Everything, length, and girth."

Austin blushes even more, even I feel my cheeks get hot; I never knew Shangri-La would be interested in knowing that. He gets his hand free from mine as he kisses my forehead and tells me, "I'll talk to you later, I need to check on a few things, regulations wise today."

I smile as he takes his pack, blanket, and telescope with him, biting my lower lip I watch as he goes into the brush and I sigh out, "I hate it when he leaves, but it's a nice view."

Shangri-La laughs and touches my shoulder and asks, "Did you… you know?"

I shake my head and inform her that I was still on my monthly bleed but we had done some… exploring. On our way back to the dorm we laugh and talk rather openly about how I was the first one of us in the Essex class to actually do anything like this.

Huh, I had always figured Essex would've been the first to fool around or do some exploring; she's always been the most confident of all of us after all. Ah well, that is neither here nor there for now I get to enjoy being the most experienced of my sister now.

XXXX

XXXX

A/N: Chapter three down. I'd like to thank everyone that responded to the question I posed at the end of chapter two; it was interesting to see similar yet different responses. My personal stance on them is they are a wholly artificial life form that presents humanity with a problem, if they consider them a people then they created and use a slave race to fight their wars, but if they are treated as weapons, that begs the question why did they make them self-aware and with emotions, hopes and fears. I've tried to take the stance that each nation in the stories I write approach that question differently, usually the Sakura Empire treats them no different, Royal Navy tends to give them a lot of autonomy, but keeps them in check, the Iron Blood takes them on a case by case bases and the Eagle Union is in deliberations with itself on it.