Chapter 4: No Place Like Home

Four hours later…

The hatch to the Ruin Wake's armory hissed open, and out walked the weary-eyed Major into the hallway. Roused from idle conversation with a crewmate, Chertyl quickly excused herself and stalked his path to the lift, doing her best to appear casual, thanking him curtly as he held the door open once he saw her.

The moment the gates clicked shut, Chertyl threw her arms around the dazed human in a hug that lifted his feet clear off the deck for several moments before she set him down, trying to recover some semblance of her normal hardened demeanor.

"Don't worry me like that again, stud. Everything feel alright?"

The pilot rubbed his eyes for a moment,

"I mean, it felt kinda weird getting debriefed in my underwear, but yeah I guess."

She blinked slowly, before specifying.

"No silly. I could feel your heart pounding like an autocannon, and I don't need a medic's take to tell me you're still amped from the fight. What gives?"

He put a hand experimentally to his chest, before answering,

"Oh, that. There's this kit in the cockpit that contains some stimulant doses and I may have taken one or four, but they're meant be used on extended missions… and not on an empty stomach."

The two arrived at last in Chertyl's cabin, and the human kicked off his boots and peeled off his shirt, pacing the room as if venting adrenaline. For her part, Chertyl unshackled her utility harness and stripped herself of her fatigues, the cool air of the ventilation duct above her feeling heavenly against her skin as she stood beneath it in nothing but her undersuit. The intercom in the hallway crackled on, and Severen himself delivered the all-clear, reporting both sister ships intact with minimal casualties, before proceeding to thank his crew for ensuring that the lives of their brothers at arms remained in capable hands.

Chertyl breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and she watched her counterpart put his hands to his face and stretch in a peculiar combination of fatigue and elation, before meeting her gaze with spirited eyes.

"We made it. Sweet baby Richard Gatling, we've actually made it. You know, I really wasn't sure I was coming back for a few moments back there. I need to lay down for a minute."

The turian called to him, beckoning him to approach her. Before he could resist, she swept him into her arms and sauntered slowly to the edge of her own bunk. As she settled him onto the soft cushion, Chertyl gave in to a spontaneous temptation, taking advantage of her position to tickle the human's exposed belly with her faceplates, delighting in the smoothness of his sweat-sheened skin as he convulsed around her in raucous laughter. Straddling her tickle-victim, she waited for his breathing to normalize before responding to his last statement.

"You would have been in a lot of trouble if you didn't come back to me, mister. So don't even think about it."

Despite herself, she heard her voice break slightly in speaking this. She hated to think he might not have pulled through, and although casualties were light, there were still many who hadn't been so lucky, to say nothing of all those they'd lost on the other side of the Apien. The human looked up at her ruminating countenance, and she suddenly felt him gingerly cup his palm around her face, wiping away a nascent tear with his thumb.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Chertyl." He spoke softly, and brought his hand behind her neck. Drawing his face close, he parted his lips tenderly to meet hers, planting them against the brim of her mouth plates as he delivered an impassioned kiss. She gasped briefly in surprise, before reciprocating in kind, her fingers wrapping from his cheeks to his temples as she explored the slickness of his tongue with the superior length and musculature of her own. She felt his breathing quicken as she broke the kiss to deliver a little nibble down his neck without warning, chirring softly as she grasped him by the neck with with her teeth and one hand, while pushing him flat onto the mattress with the other. The human gave a little yelp at her surprise attack, the sudden stimulation causing him to arch his back and pull his turian companion tight against him.

Sensing that her instincts were compromising her self-control, and mindful of his more fragile skin, she released him from her mouth and turned his head, praying she hadn't drawn blood. A light stippled crescent of red ran down the side of his neck, having barely broken the surface. She looked at him sheepishly as she fumbled for words.

"Ah… sorry dear. It's not my fault you drive me this crazy, you know. But please, please stop me if I start to hurt you, okay? You know that's the last thing I want."

Chertyl's world spun as she suddenly found herself underneath Victor, straddled by the fire-eyed human. It would seem her very turian form of foreplay had awoken his own instincts as well. She felt him take her wrists and hold them by her side, yielding to his touch despite the difference in size and strength. He kissed her on the forehead, and she could only blink demurely as he whispered in her ear,

"I know you wouldn't hurt me, you big mama bear. But that's not to say I don't like it when you're a little untamed."

Victor visited his retaliation upon her neck before she could think to reply, leaving her gasping as his tongue and teeth caressed the sensitive flesh between her chitinous plates. He began to work his way lower, his hands still pinning hers in place even as she tensed under his attention. In one motion he took the zipper pull of her suit between his incisors and pulled it along its diagonal length, baring her chest to his oral caresses. Suddenly he slowed his pace, peering up at her as he inquired out of the blue,

"Hold up. I've actually wondered for a while now, when it rains, does water get trapped in here?"

He briefly released her from his grasp to point into the shallow basin formed by her carapace,

Chertyl glanced at the human incredulously as he kissed intermittently at her breast.

"Uh...the short answer is no. If -ah- you want more detail than that we could… we could try this in the rain sometime. Now lemme help you with this."

She raised herself easily, her companion now lying squarely in her lap as she unzipped the suit completely, teasing him with a slow and deliberate pace as she slid out from underneath him to discard the garment, the turian watching with excitement as her companion followed suit and revealed himself completely to her hungry gaze. Enkindled with erogenous curiosity, she took the lead again, planting him prone at the head of the bed before mounting herself in reverse, nuzzling her face slowly against his abdomen before running her long tongue along a slow, slick journey from his umbilical scar to the tip of his alien manhood, bringing the fascinating organ to attention. Chertyl heard the human gasp from under her rump as she fondled his distended orbs before engulfing the entirety of his length into the slippery warmth of her maw. Contemplating the vaguely alkalescent but not unpleasant taste of the male, she coiled the length of her tongue around his member, forming a vacuum as she began suckling, a lewd crescendo of slurping sounds building as the human surrendered himself deeper into her throat, faintly whimpering in pleasure while reflexively thrusting his hips before being held still by the powerful hands of his alien lover.

Not one to be deterred so easily, the human instead opted to pull her own hips down toward him, eliciting a resonant moan from Chertyl as he buried his face between the engorged folds of her sex, the soft scales lining her entrance assaulted by his shorter but oh-so-divinely-textured human tongue. Mindful of the risk in smothering him, the turian nevertheless ground herself needfully against his mouth as she was forced to relinquish him from her maw in order to draw in a labored breath. She took a moment to consider the biocompatibility issues that might come to haunt them later, before deciding at the height of her lust that she needed him; she would claim him as her own, and they would simply have to try to minimize the risks however they could. By the enthusiastic smacking of her partner's oral ministrations upon her nethers however, she feared that perhaps they were going at this a little recklessly, no matter how amazing it felt.

Grinding down upon his face in one last moment of guilty hesitance, Chertyl climbed off the human and dabbed the corner of her bedsheet around his lips, and chin… and down his neck…

"Spirits, you definitely know what you're doing with that thing, Vic. Please don't tell me you ingested anything though… I'm not sure how I'd explain this to the med crew that'd have to revive you."

The human chuckled nervously, wiping away the sheen of her essence from his lips with the back of his palm.

"I can see the obituary now. 'Alliance pilot survives Reaper ambush only to die in erotic accident'... If that happens Chertyl, please let them know I died doing what I loved."

The turian flicked her mandibles, turning her face in a blush. She tried to sound irritated.

"I swear by the spirits Vic, if you go belly up on me before finishing the job-"

"-but yeah, maybe we should try something else. My tongue is going a little numb…"

She smiled.

"Thought you'd never ask, Vic."

The turian woman lowered herself slowly back onto her reclined lover, aligning the elliptical, engorged edges of her well-lubricated entrance with the tip of his anxious member before taking him slowly into the warmth of her muscular folds. Despite not being designed for her anatomy, the unfamiliar organ nevertheless rubbed all the right nerve endings up her tapering canal until the tip kissed her womb, drawing a strained moan as she forced herself to relax until he was fully hilted inside of her. She began to massage his length by clenching around him and deliberately gyrating her hips, soon rewarded with a pleasured growl as her human lover buried his face between her neck and carapace and nibbled on her exposed flesh. Feeling a primal need well within her, Chertyl abruptly rolled the human into a new position on top of her, the turian's smoky voice taking a commanding tone in contrast to her compromising posture.

"Make me yours, human. And don't… don't you hold anything back."

Victor gave only a curt nod and a grunt of acknowledgement before obeying dutifully, bringing his hips powerfully down in a rhythm of zealous presses. Chertyl hugged his hips with her legs, taking care not to spur him as they rocked the bunk with every thrust. The turian took a secret pleasure in the way his human fingers wrapped around hers, holding her in so submissive a position despite her considerable physical advantages over him. It was strange to feel so compelled to be a protective presence around him, yet desire his domination in their private company just the way he was doing. But damn if this wasn't adding up to be the greatest lovemaking thrill she'd ever experienced. From the feral pace the human began to adapt, and from his throaty moans that drowned in hers as they shared another deep kiss, she felt safe in presuming that Victor was partaking in at least some of her absolute, celestial bliss.

Finally, she could take no more. Jerking her head to the side, her jaws found purchase around her pillow as she screeched into it, faintly tearing the fabric between her sharp teeth as a powerful climax hit her like a concussion round, her musculed passage spasming in wave after wave of ecstasy.

"Chertyl, I- I cant't-"

As the human verged on pulling himself free from her, instinct again overrode logical sense in her love-drunk mind as she grabbed Vic by the buttocks and held him in place, desperate to ride her climax out on his hot rod as her body constricted around its pulsing length. With a wrenching grunt, she felt the wet warmth of his seed flood into her at last, using her last bit of strength to tense herself tightly, prevent his fluids from seeping further into her womb. Taking a moment to allow their breathing to slow and to caress each other lovingly, Chertyl turned to see tears pooling in her lover's eyes.

"I- I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have-"

Touched by his concern for her, Chertyl interrupted him with a gentle shush as she rolled herself about to straddle him once more, the human groaning as he was forced to move with her, his member still locked in place by the force of her flexed vaginal musculature. She stroked his cheek tenderly as she slowly allowed him to slip free with a wet pop, along with every drop of his exotic pearly payload, pooling around his twitching member.

'You're okay Vic. It's all right. That was kind of a risky maneuver on my part but I was the one who kinda lost self-control back there, not you. But there's nothing to worry about."

She kissed him on the forehead, bringing one talon down to her soaking slit to gingerly massage her well-ridden sex. The human took her other hand into his, holding it against his chest as he watched her ride out the ebbing tide of her orgasm through half-lidded eyes, a contented smile spreading across his face. Chertyl admitted to herself that she would like nothing more than to collapse on top of him (softly, of course) and bask in the afterglow until sleep claimed them, but she knew it would be a far wiser move to wash themselves off first before commencing the cuddling. She gave a playful whisper to her inert lover.

"No sleep yet, sweet cheeks. Not till we wash this hot mess off us…"

Dismounting the human, she strode to the other end of the cabin to retrieve both their clothes and a bottle of her favorite fragrant soap, returning Victor's curious gaze with a lewd smirk.

"...and maybe make another one while we're at it."