When he woke, for a terrifying moment, Deleth thought the blow to his head had left him blind. All he could see was deepest black, with here and there a trace of a shimmer. He sat up, and realized with great relief that it was merely the darkest part of the night and he had been sleeping on his side facing the slick black walls of the grotto. A hand came up to rest on his shoulder; Deleth startled a little, then rolled over to find Efet laying next to him.
"Come back to sleep," she murmured. Her voice was thick with sleep, and he could just make out the outline of her body.
Obligingly, Deleth lay back down and allowed himself to drift off. Efet's hand slid down his arm to his bicep, which she gave a little squeeze, then she, too, fell back into her dreams.
He groaned and cracked an eye open, noting that it was daylight now. Efet was not beside him. He tried to sit up, but the pain in his shoulder knocked him back down. Deleth groaned again and started the slow process of moving first one foot, then the other, then bending his knees. He flexed his hands, but didn't dare move that shoulder. The blow he'd taken to the side of the head throbbed; he reached up and touched it gently, finding that the dried blood had been wiped away and the gash had been cleaned to whatever extent Efet was capable of in this environment. He would heal quickly, like all those of his kind, but he was not looking forward to fighting off any more Nausicaans.
The shrubbery that blocked the entrance to their grotto shook a little as Efet entered. She gave him a warm smile as she approached, holding some fruit in her hand. "Good to see you're awake again."
His heart swelled at the sight of her. He lifted his good arm to reach for her, and Efet went to hand him some fruit, but instead Deleth caught her wrist and pulled her down to sit beside him on the black sand. She let out a little "uff!" noise as she dropped down beside him.
"I was worried when I woke and found you gone," Deleth told her.
Efet laughed a little as she put the fruit down next to them. "It's good to know you were thinking of me."
"I'm always thinking of you."
Efet went to laugh again, but saw the intense sincerity in his eyes and stopped herself. He was looking up at her like she was the center of his universe. For those brief moments she thought he might die in that battle with the Nausicaan, Efet had felt like her universe was ending. She still didn't know how she had the strength to bring him back to the safety of their grotto, but she had known she had to do it. He had been willing to fight and die to save her. Swallowing hard, she said, "I had to go fetch some food but I'm back now. You may be interested to know that I heard what sounded like the Klingon hovercraft's engine in the jungle."
"You did?" Deleth tried to sit up and yelped in pain.
She settled him back down into a reclining position. "Yes, I think so. I didn't see them, though, the foliage was too thick. But I don't think any of the other Nausicaans have found us, either."
"If they knew where we were, they'd have come and killed us by now," Deleth said. "They're a violent and vengeful inferior species. The one that followed us yesterday did not tell the others about us, surely for his own evil purposes."
He didn't have to clarify what evil the Nausicaan had intended for her, as they both had a good idea. Efet brushed a hand against Deleth's brow, more to comfort him than to take his temperature; she had no idea what was a fever in a Romulan. She was sure she never wanted to see another Nausicaan again in her life, but it perturbed her a little that Deleth had reverted back to his 'inferior species' rambling. It must have been programmed into his mind from a young age, Efet thought, but then, Cardassian children were also raised on tales of glory and pride probably not all that different from what Romulans were taught. Perhaps, she too had all kinds of thinking programmed into her. She'd never really considered that before she met Deleth and discovered how they both had inaccurate ideas about the other.
Deleth seemed to revel in her touch, and something dawned on Efet: whatever it was between them was beginning to coalesce into a shape that more and more resembled the relationship between a man and a woman. Their dynamic had been so odd at first with the mixed signals and miscommunication, but the shape was becoming clearer, and this morning she woke in his arms again. Efet had slipped from his grasp and he'd made a soft sound of dismay that she'd soothed away with a stroke to the back of his hand. Even as she thought about this, Deleth looked up at her and asked in the softest voice she'd ever heard him use, "C-can I touch your hand?"
She roused herself from her daydreaming and managed a nod. Deleth did not reach for her hand right away. Instead, he touched her elbow, his fingers tracing the outline of the scales there, then slid up the delicate skin on the underside of her forearm, drawing his fingers up as he went until his nails lightly brushed at her wrist. Her breathing sped up and for some reason her heart started pounding. Deleth was still looking into her eyes, holding her gaze so tight she couldn't have broken away even if she'd wanted to. Then his fingers slid into the cup of her palm, then down to caress her littlest finger, back up to the next finger, and so on. He tempered his strength to keep from crushing her.
"Efet..." Deleth managed after a long moment.
"Yes?" Her heart beat a mad tattoo against her chest.
"This is how my people kiss," Deleth confessed, and he lowered her hand and released it. She blinked at him. He sighed, seeming disappointed in himself. "You didn't know, of course."
She looked down at her fingers, which seemed to tingle. "Have you ever kissed someone like this before?"
Deleth frowned. "Yes," he admitted, and added, "a long time ago. It went nowhere. Now I realize it didn't really mean anything at all." He sighed again. "I've taken advantage of you. I offer my apologies, although I don't think I deserve your forgiveness-"
"Deleth," she interrupted. "Have you kissed anyone the way my people kiss?"
He let his head drop back down to the ground and audibly gulped. He stared at the grotto's ceiling and said, "No, never." She leaned in closer, fascinated by the way his neck flushed. That, at least, was a shared trait of their peoples. He almost seemed to be trembling in anticipation as she drew herself close to him, nuzzling her face to his so her lips brushed against the shell of his ear.
"Do you want to?"
He was definitely trembling now. Efet could feel the heat in her own neck scales, and knew she, too, was blushing furiously. "I-um..."
Efet drew back just a little. "But not with me? Don't be concerned, I'd never steal your first kiss from you."
Deleth turned his head and shot her a look with those dark eyes that beseeched her not to toy with him. Efet smiled at him. His hands were clenching open and closed, as though he was fighting back the impulse to grab her and clutch her to him. She found the coiled tension in him thrilling; she had never seen a man so desperate to touch her, as though she were a physical need like thirst or hunger. All right, Efet told herself. You're the older and more experienced one! You can do this! She steeled herself, knowing that he had never kissed with his lips before and likely had no idea what to do. She brushed her lips against his ear again, hearing and feeling as he drew a great gasp of air. Continuing on her way, letting him adjust to the feeling of her lips, she trailed down to his lobe, then onto the hinge of his jaw, where she found his feverishly hot skin was covered in tiny, invisible hairs that felt velvety.
Although Efet had planned on seducing him, she nearly swooned. This was nothing like kissing a Cardassian man. Deleth was deliciously hot, his skin so impossibly soft and he had a scent reminded her of the human spice cinnamon. Little needy sounds came from his throat, and she felt his body straining upward, trying to connect with her. She braced one hand on his chest even as her lips brushed against his mouth.
She felt him tense, then the seam of his lips opened, and that was it - Deleth's good hand fisted in her hair, pressing her to him, and he moaned into the kiss. He had no idea what he was doing but she'd anticipated that, and tried to guide him, sliding her tongue against his lower lip before kissing it, then tilting her head to deepen the connection between their mouths. He tried to sit up again to pull her even more against him, but gasped in pain and fell back, breaking away from her. He lay back, panting softly, his lips swollen.
"Ah," Deleth groaned. "I can't believe - my shoulder-" he sounded agonized, partly from the pain and partly from the frustration of almost getting everything he wanted but not quite.
"It's all right," Efet assured him. "Let yourself heal." She leaned over him, smiling a little as his good arm came up to wrap around her waist and his fingers pushed past the material of her blouse to find a bit of bare skin. He was so tactile; she could get used to this.
He seemed to be trying to will his shoulder to mend itself in moments. "That was incredible," he said. "You're incredible. Efet, I've never felt-"
"You don't have to say anything," Efet assured him. After all, she was the only woman here, so she had no illusions about her default status.
"No," Deleth groaned again. "Let me finish what I wished to say! I loved all of it, I loved kissing you. I need to be around you. The touch of your hands, your lips, the trust you put in me - I need it. Let me hold you again, kiss you, and I'll make love to you and I swear, I swear, it will be pleasurable for you. I won't stop till I find how to bring you pleasure, and we'll lay so close and our skin will touch and we'll feel one another's-"
"Deleth," whispered Efet, a little overwhelmed. She had heard Romulans were basically more passionate Vulcans, and vaguely something about Vulcans being so wild in their past that they'd nearly driven themselves to extinction. For the first time she saw of this side of him, this passion and need. Her people did not bond so quickly, but Deleth seemed to be consumed with her, body and soul. She stroked the sides of his neck even as he thrashed his head and tried to pull himself back up.
"Please don't shut me out," Deleth begged from between clenched teeth.
"I would never shut you out. I want you, too," Efet assured him, and that seemed to soothe him a little, as he let his head fall back and take in deep draws of air. She did want him, but she was overwhelmed. Realistically, she had no idea how this would work and hadn't really had a plan past kissing him. Either they would die here in this jungle, or find some way to be rescued by their own people. Her people would never let her take him back with her, and even if they did, what would he do on Cardassia? Very few aliens settled on her world, and her people did not take kindly to the daughters of Cardassia choosing men from other worlds. At primary school there'd only been one set of hybrids, half-Miradorn twin sisters, and their mother was Miradorn. Efet couldn't imagine the notoriously xenophobic and suspicious Romulans would allow Deleth to bring her back with him.
She pressed herself against him, laying her head on his chest and clasping his good hand in hers, interlocking their fingers. Deleth groaned appreciatively. She had acted on a fantasy, Efet realized, but she really did desire him. She wasn't sure how they could make this work, but somehow she knew Deleth was serious about her, she felt it -
A terrible thought occured to her.
"Deleth," Efet said, raising her head. "Are you telepathic?!" Vulcans were telepathic, she was sure of it, so surely Romulans were, too!
Deleth looked up at her with horror. "Do you think I'm controlling your mind?"
The bottom fell out of her stomach, like being on a jumpship just as the Zero G kicked in. "Are you?" she whispered. Was everything she'd done and felt just suggestions from him? Were her thoughts even her own?
"Efet, listen to me now." Deleth's tone was deadly serious. He had a look on his face like a man prepared to fight for his life, and she supposed in a way he was. "My people are not touch telepaths like Vulcans. Well, in very rare cases, there have been Romulans with great talents. But I am not one of them. All I can do is get glimpses of your emotions in their rawest forms."
"Emotions? But can you control them?"
"No!" Deleth's face screwed up in pain and distress. "I swear to you all I can do is feel impressions from you. I cannot influence you." His eyes pleaded with her to believe him, and incredibly, she did. Efet reasoned that if he had the ability to mind control someone by touch, he could've used it on her when they first met to force her to do his bidding, or made the Nausicaan stop fighting them. Or even made the Klingon guards obey him. Efet, like all Cardassian children, had received training in resisting mental assaults, but she'd never had to use any of those techniques. Thinking back, she could identity no presences in her mind that seemed foreign, or any will but her own. She slumped a little in relief.
"I believe you," she said at last. "It's just - my people have a horror of being mind controlled. You must understand."
"I do," Deleth assured her. "Romulans don't bond like Vulcans. They entrap their mates with a sort of psychic link, and even worse, it's forced on them as children. But my people rejected that oppressive system over two thousand years ago. The thought of never having a private moment to myself is horrible." He reached for her hand, and she let their fingers interlock in that intimate way that made his eyes roll back in his head.
"Well, you're in no shape for romance right now," Efet told him, looking at his shoulder pointedly. "And we both need to eat something." She picked up their forgotten fruit and began peeling it, offering some to Deleth who was ravenous all of a sudden.
They stayed in their grotto the rest of the day, talking and holding one another. When dusk fell, Efet felt it was safe to venture out again to gather more food. Deleth did not want her to go alone, but he was still in no shape to go with her, so she promised she'd be careful and softly kissed his lips. Tip-toeing out, Efet set to gathering some of the scraggly leafy vegetables Deleth had shown her; it didn't taste very good but could be eaten raw, and they didn't dare build a fire right now. She was returning to the grotto when the clouds were lit up by beams of phaser fire, followed by the faint sounds of fighting and yelling far in the distance. Frightened, she almost ran back to the grotto to tell Deleth what she'd seen.
"Phaser fire? You're sure?" Deleth was now sitting up, still favoring the injured shoulder but looking better and better. "That can only mean the Klingons have gone after the Nausicaans in a hunting party."
The thought of anyone, even those Nausicaans, being hunted for sport made her stomach turn. "So the Klingons have killed them all?"
"Only one way to find out, and that's to head towards where you saw the phaser fire and investigate. If they've killed the Nausicaans, they won't bother burying them. The bodies will still be right where they fell."
"I thought Klingons were all about honor," sniffed Efet. "I don't see how hunting down aliens caged in this valley is very honorable. You'd think at least they'd use their bat'leth instead of phasers."
"They did before," said Deleth, and Efet did not want to know the circumstances behind that statement. "It's very strange. Maybe the Nausicaans ambushed them so they resorted to their phasers." He seemed troubled, and when they lay down for sleep he pulled Efet to him and held her protectively, as though he could keep away the horrors just outside their little grotto's entrance.