Chapter 9 – Silent Conversations
In the week on-board the Mother of Invention I'd never had to use the locker room showers. That was until one fateful day when I had a meeting with the Diagnostics Team straight after an intense training session. I would have gone without a shower if the technicians were only checking the outside of my armour, but no, of course they'd be doing internal checks as well. There wasn't an armour removal arch in my private quarters, but there was one in the locker room. So while I would've usually have time to get my armour removed, head to my room, shower and return to put it back on, I didn't today; therefore making it necessary to use the locker room ones. One of which was currently occupied by New Mexico; if the red and orange armour currently being cleaned by the remover was an indicator, along with the black under-suit strewn across the floor in front of a stall.
I had no options other than to either turn up to the diagnostic test while smelling profusely and embarrassing myself, or risking the possibility of New Mexico seeing me without any cover except for a towel. I put on a brave face and decided to face the latter; hoping that Nex would stay in his stall long enough for me to shower and leave before being spotted. So first I had my armour removed, then grabbed out a large towel and a bar of my favoured apricot-scented soap from my locker before entering the shower stall furthest from the occupied one. Unfortunately I couldn't bring a fresh body-suit into the shower-stall because they were nigh-on impossible to slip into once wet, so I'd have to grab it after my shower and put it on in a changing-stall once I was dry. I didn't strip my body-suit until I'd closed the curtain, throwing it out over the curtain rod once I'd done so.
Luck wasn't on my side that day, because somehow New Mexico and I both finished showering at the exact same time. Upon realising that Nex would probably have no qualms about exiting the stall naked; because no one other than the guys normally used the showers in the locker room, I quickly wrapped my towel around myself without even drying my hair as I'd normally do, and rushed out of the stall. I expected that Nex would probably see me as I bee-lined to my locker, but I wouldn't see him. What I didn't expect is for Nex to be busy walking towards his locker while drying his hair with one towel, having also wrapped another low around his hips, and not seeing me until we collided with a decent amount of force.
"Fuck!" he called out as he was blinded when his towel fell over his face and he stumbled; pushing me roughly against a locker. "Sorry man…" he started before realising that the collar-bones that his hands were pressed against were too feminine to belong to any of the male Agents on board. His towel chose that opportune moment to fall of his head; revealing me beneath him with just a towel wrapped around my body. A towel that had un-done its loose knot and was currently only being held up by Nex's hands.
Before he could even consider moving his hands, which he seemed reluctant to doing so anyway, I pressed my own hands against his to secure them and my towel; causing the red of both of our faces to deepen in colour. "Don't," I pleaded softly, because I needed him to both not accidentally release my towel, as well as give into the lust I saw spread through his blue eyes. We'd both been dancing around our attraction towards each other for the entire week I'd been with the Project; just little compliments and 'accidental' touches really. I'd been strong in my resolve to only have a platonic relationship with him, but those few seconds of heated contact in the locker-room blew it all away in a massive explosion.
In this case a massive explosion of heat that erupted in my abdomen as Nex's lips softly crashed into mine. I gasped from a sudden rush of pleasure, and Nex responded by deepening the kiss and delving his tongue into my mouth; running it along the underside of my top lip while he simultaneously moaned. My body finally caught onto what was happening and I responded to the kiss; moving my own mouth and tongue against his, as well as relocating my hands to the back of his head, threading my fingers through his soft, wet hair. He tasted like the peppermints he was fond of eating, and I suddenly craved the taste when he removed his mouth and relocated to my neck. My back arched back and my hips ground into his as he started to plant kisses from my collar-bone up to my pulse point; the kill spot I'd demonstrated on him earlier that week. When he nipped at the spot I bucked my hips and we both groaned in unison; my brain finally catching up to my body when I felt a hardening length between his legs.
Removing my hands from Nex's hair, I broke off his attentions to my neck when I slipped my hands underneath his, which were still securing my towel and secured it myself. I then dug my elbows into either side of his well-defined chest and pushed him away by stepping forward, as I slid my hands along the top of my towel and underneath my arms to secure it around the open back. Before Nex could speak I spun to my locker that was on my left, grabbed my spare suit and strode into an empty change-room. As I closed the door I saw Nex head towards me and stand to the side of my stall; obviously waiting for me to exit to talk. I spent the time drying and suiting-up to compose my beating heart and racing thoughts; what was I going to do? I was already running out of time before my appointment so I couldn't talk properly with Nex.
Once I was finished getting ready I exited the stall and spoke first before I could be interrupted. "Nex I've got to be at diagnostics in two mikes, I've gotta armour-up and go," I blurted out as I moved to the armour station.
He was going to argue, but instead conceded with a sigh before asking apprehensively, "Can we talk later?"
I bobbed my head in accent and the move drew his gaze to my throat; specifically the area where I'd most likely be sporting a small bruise if my neck wasn't covered by the high-collared under-suit. Clearing my throat to distract him from any lustful thoughts I added, "I'll meet you in the rec-room after my appointment." Satisfied with the answer he turned to access his locker; to grab his own under-suit and to dress, while the mechanical arms spinning around me finished placing my blue armour on. Now in the relative safety of a thousand-pounds of titanium-alloy I gave him a slight wave as I headed out of the locker-room.
We never did end up meeting in the recreation room. Just as I arrived at the diagnostics lab F.I.L.S.S sounded out a ship wide message, "All Freelancer Agents please report to the bridge immediately." It turned out to be a mission briefing. Apparently the data drive that Florida and I had retrieved on our first mission had an encrypted security code; the key for which we had stolen off the corpse of an Insurrectionist leader the evening prior. That key was also heavily encrypted so someone, most likely the Alpha, had been running a decryption program since we'd gotten back with it. Obviously whatever was on the data drive was very important if the Innies had gone through all the trouble of hiding it.
The most valuable information found, we were told by the Director, was the location of a heavily-armed Insurrectionist Frigate named the Sinister. Our mission was to infiltrate the vessel and destroy it through internal timed detonations. I was to lead the team of five Freelancers onto and out of the ship, while New Mexico was going to be instructing us on the placement of the explosives, as it was his field specialty. My jobs were the easiest as the crew of the Mother of Invention had already intercepted a Pelican bound for the Sinister, hence causing the emergency briefing, because its disappearance would be eventually noticed. I figured out the exfiltration plan on the jog down to the hangar bay; deciding that we'd simply use the emergency pods closest to our locations.
Normally I'd sit in the co-pilot's position on-board a Pelican, however we needed to plan more of the rushed mission on the flight to the Sinister. I sat cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the open hull, with my fellow Freelancer Agents sitting in seats either side of me, while I gestured to points on the holo-projected schematic. After I'd shown them the locations of the various escape-pod bays, Nex moved to sit down opposite from me and point out the best spots to set the detonations. Once we'd gone through all the details Nex and I just stared at each other through our visors, both of us lost in thought while the others watched awkwardly.
Wyoming cleared his throat to garner our attention before asking, "So is this a hit-and-run or stealth mission boss?"
Thankful for the distraction I replied, "Both. We won't all be able to avoid detection, so we'll gave to be quick. However it'll help to be quiet unless you want to battle through a legion of Innies."
"Sounds like a good time," Maine growled out.
"Oh I don't know about that Maine, I can think of a few things I'd rather be doing right now," Nex said silkily while looking at me; I was very thankful for my helmet that hid my instantly red cheeks and muffled the strangled cough I sounded out. I busied myself quickly by standing up as casually as I could and moving to the cock-pit to talk to 479er, closing the door once I was in. Peeling my helmet off my head I then proceeded to fan my heated face with my hand while taking a seat.
479er must have heard Nex's comment because she snorted in amusement and then snarked, "Something gotcha all hot and bothered Bluey?" I didn't reply which made her laugh loudly. "He's probably just referring to how he likes that you beat him senseless every training session," she tried to placate unsuccessfully, "I reckon that boy has a fetish." Sighing in acceptance at my fate of being harassed for the rest of the trip, I re-equipped my helmet and started up some loud music, through both the internal and external speakers, that I'd loaded from my tablet onto a disk and connected to the A.I slot on the back. I closed my eyes as I listened to the soothing and hypnotic tones of my favourite song from the eighties; Drive by The Cars.
I'd decided that I was now used to Nex sneaking up and surprising me when his voice sounded to my right. "I've never heard that one before, when's it from?" he asked while looking out the cock-pit window wistfully.
"Yeah it's really good, what's the band called" 479er added.
"1984," I replied simply to Nex's question before answering 479ers, "The Cars." They both turned sharply to look at me in amazement, and then the next song in the playlist started up; You Might Think, by the same band.
After bopping my head around to the music for a few seconds I softly sung a part of the chorus, "You might think I'm foolish, or maybe it's untrue. You might think I'm crazy, but all I want is you."
Our pilot turned back to focus on the flight controls when Nex slid his gloved hand behind my back to rest between my shoulders. It turned out we didn't need to have a talk in the rec-room to figure out what we were doing.