Author's Note:
This is not my usual fandom but I have been reading some La'an/Una fics of late and have been inspired by the many talented writers to jump abord this ship and offer my own small contribution. I don't really post here anymore since the sites censorship has seen some of my work removed (this probably won't last long here considering the content). If you would like to read some of my other more recent works then please venture over to that Other Archive that is Our Own. Many thanks to Rhino who did the Beta read for this and who continues to be both inspiration, collaborator and fanfiction friend across the ether of the internet.
It began the first night Una returned after her court martial.
The first ever augment to serve openly and be granted refugee status amongst Starfleet.
La'an had been anxious and unsettled the entire day, right up until Una had been transported back onto the ship. At last La'an had been able to breathe…but there was a tension still. The welcome home and celebration party that Captain Pike had insisted on had run late as usual but La'an had stayed for the whole thing…a first for her at any of these social obligations on board.
She had silently watched Una receive congratulations and welcomes back from crew members who ordinarily would have been too intimidated to so casually speak with their fearsome first officer..
Yet there was something freer…more available about Una now that her secret was known. She was still the consummate professional. Still larger than life and cuttingly direct…but she was less an island now. Less untouchable somehow.
Una had invited La'an in for a night cap when she walked her back to her quarters after the party. La'an had agreed without a second thought since it wasn't unusual for one of them to end up in the other's quarters for a late night chat or a drink. Una was her dearest friend and she was kind of proud that it was mutual. Two people who loved work and the stars, who found it so hard to connect with the rest of the crew but who 'got' each other in a way neither of them had ever found in anyone else.
That had been the night that La'an balled up her courage and dove forward for a clumsy kiss. At first Una had frozen in shock. La'an had pulled back mortified. Castigating herself that she was just the pitiable Gorn survivor that Una had saved all those years ago…that her awkward pass at her best friend had just ruined one of the few friendships she had: her best friendship in fact.
When La'an had staggered to her feet, apologies raining from her mouth and a humiliated blush crawling across her cheeks she had barely made it two steps to the door before Una's hand had latched onto her wrist like an iron cuff.
Neither Una nor La'an had been ready for the conversation they had that night. Neither had expected the other to admit how much they had missed each other during Una's incarceration. Neither had been prepared to learn that their feelings of longing, of quiet love and confused affection were mirrored.
La'an had never been good at social interactions. Never able to find the right words or act the right way for others…yet with Una she didn't feel like an alien trying to understand foreign emotions and words. Perhaps the fact that Una knew something about feeling 'other' after hiding for her entire life gave her a unique perspective, but somehow they fit together. Two slightly misshapen beings that never quite fit with those around them, but who were just right for each other.
The night they spent together had been everything La'an had ever dreamed of and more. She had always rolled her eyes and made cutting comments at Chapel and Ortegas commentary on love and relationships. The novels and shows about romance always made it sound so silly and La'an had always felt like perhaps the Gorn had broken something in her that she could never feel the desire for the love or closeness that everyone else felt and yearned for. The images and ideas of being that physically vulnerable with another being had made her feel hyper aware and jumpy, like she was that same scared child waiting for the monsters in the dark to reach out and grab her.
Yet with Una…it all fell away. She trusted Una. Had trusted her since the first moment she had saved her from that raft in space.
Suddenly it was like La'an could fully understand the language everyone else had been speaking all their lives. She understood why people yearned for relationships. She understood the need to touch someone she loved, to be close to them. It wasn't weakness or clinginess, it was desire and strength, and a feeling of safe contentedness she had never known before.
Being in Una's long arms had quickly become her favorite place to be. And Una never made her speak about what she wanted, never poked or teased about how the publicly stoic and harsh La'an seemed to want to cuddle when in the privacy of one of their quarters…it was like Una craved the closeness too, and cherished those private moments. She cherished that softer side of La'an that no one else would ever get to see.
They were keeping their relationship quiet for now. It was new and neither of them was keen on having to deal with the curious eyes and inevitable commentary from fellow crew. Pike would likely say something sappy and typically 'dad-like' while Ortegas and Chapel would have all the decorum of drunken bar flies in teasing them.
The quiet and privacy of exploring this new facet of their relationship was cherished. It suited their personalities too. They remained cooly professional in public, their duty and their ability never wavering while their romantic relationship blossomed.
It had only been two weeks since Una returned from her court martial and neither she, nor La'an were eager to draw new attention to themselves by filling in the necessary forms to declare their relationship. La'an found herself feeling protective of her new relationship with Una and jealousy wanting to guard the private bubble of happiness they had created. Inviting command to once more scrutinize Una for her choice of partner, a relationship between the ranks, felt like an invasion that neither woman was quite yet prepared to allow so soon after Una had just escaped the most recent bureaucratic scrutiny process of Starfleet command's court martial.
Starfleet had protocol for crewmembers dating, especially those dating between the ranks as they were, and while La'an was unafraid of the necessary formal meeting she would have to have with Captain Pike and a video conference with a third party commanding officer to cross the i's and dot the t's on the paperwork to confirm she wasn't being coerced into a relationship with a superior officer, and to transfer performance reviews and the nitty gritty of discipline regs from Una's purview back to the captain for La'an…well, she wasn't eager for it either. Having Captain Pike asking formal rote questions was one thing, but discussing something so private with an outsider just made La'an's hackles rise.
There would be talk, La'an knew that much. Spaceships were naturally gossipy environments and she knew that her and Una's personalities and history would feed the gossip mill for weeks with salacious rumors which bore no resemblance to reality. For all humanity had evolved, gossip remained.
That wasn't what was on La'an's mind right now anyway. The perils of dating her commanding officer, the complex emotional baggage of their shared history and the seven year age gap were all things they had talked through before. No… what was on La'an's mind right now was something she had only really begun to register last night.
There was something off about Una.
La'an is pretty damn sure no-one else would ever have noticed but La'an isn't just anyone. She has spent years studying Una, being her friend. They can communicate with the flick of an eyebrow, the rolling of exasperated eyes and the tightening of the corner of their lips. They could hold entire conversations right beneath the command staff's nose at weekly meetings with the merest eye contact and a few subtle facial and body language tells. That knowledge and closeness means that La'an knows something is off with Una…she just isn't quite sure what it is.
Finally making love with Una had been…revelatory. Simultaneously it was coming home and frantic euphoria. Whether they were making love slowly or frantically fucking after a hard day of work La'an had never felt pleasure like it…never felt more free. Perhaps that is why she hadn't noticed at first that something was off with Una.
Last night La'an had her hands plastered across Una's strong, broad back, her short nails scrabbling for purchase just as Una brought her to the cusp of ecstasy. Una had pulled back and whispered gently, "Easy, mind the nails." La'an had blushed and immediately loosened her grip, embarrassed that she had almost hurt Una, almost drove riverlets of scratches into her back from her writhing pleasure…yet she had stopped and readjusted her grip the moment Una had said it was a problem. She had thought she had respected the boundary and that Una hadn't minded. Yet, as they continued and brought each other to their peaks, La'an had caught it. A subtle tension in Una's frame that wasn't born of pleasure or desire. A tightness around her eyes which Una hid so fast that La'an almost missed it as she tipped over into petit mort. When they were laying in each other's arms La'an had subtly checked Una's back and been relieved she hadn't left any gouges from her nails or scratches. But the image of Una's face, that tightness and the fleeting feeling of her tenseness was burned into La'an's mind.
For the rest of the day as La'an worked she had been distracted reviewing her memories of the last two weeks and every interaction with Una, every touch…and now, now she was sure that something was off.
Una was an excellent actress. Always had been. She had spent her entire life acting and hiding so well that even La'an, the person closest to her, had been completely ignorant of the fact that she was an Illyrian.
Yet, La'an was certain now that Una was hiding something. Ever since Una had been revealed as an Illyrian, ever since her court martial, some invisible wall between them had fallen slightly. Una was less careful, somehow just that little bit more open and it was the chink in her armour that La'an needed to spot the inconsistency, to spot that once again Una was hiding something from her.
What? That was the question.
A question that was now driving La'an quietly insane as her mind aggressively tore apart every possible thing that Una could be hiding from her.
Was Una second guessing their relationship? Had La'an caught Una at a weak moment that first night where she has been caught between gratitude and nostalgia enough to give into La'an's desires?
Or maybe La'an has been interpreting things wrong, maybe Una hasn't been enjoying their couplings as much as La'an has? The self doubt makes La'an feel small and vulnerable, a feeling that her Gorn damaged psyche rails against with violent anger. She is younger than Una and had never been very good at interacting with other human beings since those traumatic years when she had been prey to be hunted. She was less experienced with love and sex she knew. Perhaps she wasn't as pleasing to Una as she thought? Maybe Una was trying to protect La'an once again by hiding her dissatisfaction? La'an had only ever slept with one other person. A brief fling in her academy days with a member of San Francisco's civil peace keeper core who had worked near Starfleet Training Academy. It had been an ill conceived attempt at trying to connect with her humanity. An attempt to address the shortcomings in herself that everyone else in her Starfleet academy class seemed to see.
Those had been hard years where her academic success at easily topping her class despite her trauma and the major gaps in her education because of the Gorn had won her no friends. Rather it had seemed to stoke her peers ire as they were quickest to point out her failings in her personal and social life: how she was too cold, too remote and too unfeeling. She had thought that by experiencing the connection of dating and sexual exploits that her peers were so enamored with that she might fix herself. The sex had been nerve wracking at first as La'an used her stubbornness to force herself to trust another person with herself in such a vulnerable position. Keeping the lights on had helped and once she had gotten past the initial got reaction of fear that something would hunt her the moment she removed her shoes and was naked…well it had actually been fun. La'an found sex was like satiating an appetite she had known the growing hunger of for a few years but had never known how to feed. Alas, even the momentary highs hadn't been enough to fix whatever was broken within her and when she couldn;t distract her partner with sex, the pressure to open up, to spend time together and be vulnerable had made La'an all the more defensive and prickly. Her experiment with relationships had ultimately left her feeling more vulnerable and more alien than before. She found the time commitment of a relationship tedious and while Cassidy had been a nice enough person and fun to spar with, she had been pushy and poked at things in La'an's personality and past that she hadn't yet been ready to face.
La'an marched to Una's quarters the moment her shift ended. The doors to Una's quarters opened automatically at her arrival. Usually that small sign of their relationship, of Una's trust in La'an that she had been added to her quarters entry list would have warmed he,r but right now it didn't even register.
Una was sat at her dining table surrounded by stacks of pads. She squinted at a large grey pad that looked like a monthly crew performance review while eating strawberries from a small bowl nestled at her elbow. Even off shift Una tended to work, much like La'an, it was something they had in common. Ordinarily in the past two weeks La'an would have taken a seat at Una's table, pulled up some of her own work and they would have passed an hour or two in companionable silence as they worked until by some unspoken agreement they would have stopped to have dinner and enjoy an hour or two of conversation and a movie before bed.
Today however, La'an marches to sand in front of Una and demands, "What's wrong?"
Una startles a little at the unexpected question and the break in their growing routine.
She twists in her seat to face La'an, uncharacteristically having to look up at her standing partner as she confusedly asks, "What?" Una's face is the picture of someone caught off guard and who has no context for this conversation.
La'an feels her hands ball into fists and she falls back into old habits as she hides them behind her back and stands at parade rest, her brows furrowed and contained anger in her eyes as she stares at Una, "You're hiding something from me again. You promised not to do that."
Una rocks back slightly in her seat as though she has been struck, her brows rising. Una takes in La'an's tense stance and hard eyes, deciding immediately that whatever this is, it is serious.
Una sets the pad she was working on aside and stands, stepping closer to La'an, her full intense focus now on the smaller woman as she gazes down at her, "La'an I have no idea what you are talking about?" Una states questioningly, her right hand rising to soothingly skim across La'an's upper bicep in comfort.
La'an instinctively takes a half step back so she is out of reach. She can't be distracted right now by Una's touch.
Una's confused visage morphs to one of growing concern and a hint of hurt as La'an flinches back from her.
"La'an?" Una asks plaintively.
La'an takes another step back and begins pacing back and forth, darting looks at Una, "I know there is something. I…I know you Una, better than anyone. We- when we were together last night I noticed it, you were holding yourself back…you were tense and your eyes…I know you are hiding something."
Una's eyes flash realization and then her face hides it behind a look of indulgent concern with a placating smile.
"La'an, I'm not hiding anything anymore. Nothing is wrong…I, we were rather busy last night so I'm not sure what you mean."
La'an knows that smile, it's Una's professional first officer smile for reassuring dignitaries or new alien species they are meeting.
"Don't do that. Don't give me that reassuring first officer smile and think you can distract me. You swore that you were done with secrets Una, so tell me: Are you having second thoughts about us? What is it? Your rank, my age? W-were you….I mean, am I not- did I do something wrong? Something you didn't like? I need you to talk to me so I can be better!"
Pain flashes across Una's face and she uses her long legs to stride in a single step into La'an's space, crowding her with her tall frame. Her hands settle on La'an's shoulders before sliding up gently to cup her face as she shakes her head, "No, No! La'an of course not…of course I'm not second guessing this. You know how I feel about you. This-" she gestures between their chests, "- this makes me happier than I ever thought I could be. You're perfect."
Una swoops down before La'an can reply, Una's plump lips sliding across La'ans thinner ones. La'an is distracted for a moment, the heat and pressure of Una holding her in her arms, her lips that tasted of the strawberries she had been snacking on throughout the day.
La'an almost lets herself be convinced, lets herself be distracted but as Una's hand presses against La'an's lower back to draw her closer, La'an feels Una hesitate, feels the fraction of a second tensing.
It is enough to bring La'an back to herself.
She rears back and pushes Una away, "No. No. You can't distract me like that. I won't be lied to again. You promised! I know there is something, I can feel it when you touch me."
Una's devastated face tightens with a flash of anger at her plan failing and her inability to distract La'an.
She opens her mouth to speak but seems lost for words, her hand half rising to La'an and then falling again.
La'an watches Una, the sense of wrongness between them growing as she has her suspicions confirmed. There is something.
La'an waits with her eyes locked on Una's and the storm of conflicting emotions which seem to be raging in her usually controlled friend.
When Una makes no move to reply, but seems set instead on giving no answer to La'an's accusations, La'an feels her shoulders slump slightly.
She feels anger and hurt burn in her chest. Una is still hiding something, still lying to her.
Her eyes sting and La'an has the humiliating realization that she can feel tears building up. She doesn't cry. Can count the number of times she has cried on one hand with fingers left over.
She takes a deep breath and composes herself, "I see. Well, I- I can't do this…I won't be lied to again. Perhaps we should just go back to being friends. It's obvious you don't trust me enough for more. Or…or at least a break until you decide that I am worthy of your trust Una."
Una flinches like she has been struck but before she can formulate a reply La'an has whirled and marched out of her quarters.
Una stands in shock at how quickly the whole situation had spiraled out of control.
She turns back to the table and in a rare show of volatile emotion she sweeps the pads and strawberries to the floor.
"Shit!" she groans pathetically as she surveys the mess on her floor and tries to think of how to fix this.
Two hours later found La'an stretched out on her bed, her uniform uncharacteristically discarded at the entrance to her en-suite. Being part of the command crew had its privileges and right now La'an was very grateful for her en-suite. The hot shower allowed her to wash off some of her anger and hid the scalding tears that dared escape her eyes.
Her hair, released from her braids, was wet and loose around her head. She was wrapped in a long grey nightgown, her mind replaying every interaction with Una as she tried desperately to figure out what she had done to cause Una to not trust her. Trying desperately to find some hint in her perfect recall of what it is that Una is hiding, what it is that she is holding back from La'an.
Her thoughts are interrupted by the chime of her quarters door. La'an ignores it. It chimes again. She ignores it.
It chimes again and with a groan La'an pulls herself from her bed to answer the door. She sets her face into a scowl, preparing to scare off whatever junior officer with an inane enquiry is at her door…or to fake illness if it is Erica or Chapel wanting to push her into socializing.
La'an opened her mouth to make a cutting comment as she triggered the door opening but her mouth snapped shut as she registered Una standing before her. The woman's usually pristine hair was ruffled as though she had been pulling at it or running her fingers through it like she did when she was stressed. Her lips were chapped from being bitten and most telling of all, her Command gold tunic dress was open at the the neck, haphazardly undone by the hidden zipper.
Una shifted from foot to foot, the usually charismatic and ramrod straight first officer slightly hunched and her face plaintive.
"Can we talk?" Una asked.
La'an prepared to turn her away. She had tried talking like an adult and Una had stone walled her. Una, perhaps seeing the truculent expression on La'an's face interrupted before La'an could send her away, "Please. Please hear me out."
La'an examined her lover's face, the open pleading making her feel unsettled and cooling her temper, "Five minutes." La'an replies stonily as she crosses her arms and steps aside.
Una nods, "Thank you," as she slips into the room.
Una lopes across the room and sits upon the very edge of La'ans little sofa. The sofa is so low that Una almost looks comically uncomfortable with her long legs bent upwards even with her feet planted on the ground.
La'an walks back into her quarters, past the side table to sit on the edge of her bed, facing Una as she sat in the living area.
La'an watches Una as she fidgets. The silence stretches between them. La'an is determined to not be the first person to speak. She crosses her arms and watches Una as her eyes drift around La'an's quarters, never meeting her eyes.
Just as La'an is running out of patience and is about to tell Una that her five minutes is up so she should leave if she has nothing to say, Una takes a deep audible breath through her nose before saying almost hesitantly, "You smell of moss and grass."
La'an takes a moment to try and make sense of that seemingly pointless and random statement, "Oookay? And what? You don't like how I smell? Are you saying my scent is a turn off, that's why you go all tense when we-"
Una cuts off the head of steam La'an seems to be building, "No, no." Una actually has the audacity to laugh and she looks at La'an with an expression of exasperation and indulgent humor, "I love how you smell. I know it's that special scent masking soap you pay a horrendous amount to have made back on earth and shipped out here. Made with all natural ingredients: real terran mosses, grasses and goats' milk so there is no discrepancy in the scent like if it was replicated. I'm sure people think it's just some standard basic body soap, but I know its an essential thing you need to feel safe and comfortable, some part of you still thinking you need to hide your human scent."
To hide from the Gorn goes unsaid.
La'an is now just confused. Sort of touched at Una's insight into such a small detail about her but still confused.
"Okay. Maybe that is a bit cute in a creepy sort of way, but what has it to do with our problem Una? What has this got to do with what you are hiding from me, with what is making you tense when we are together?"
Una sighs and stares at La'an desperately before turning to stare at the glass table in front of the sofa.
"I…I have been hiding I'm Illyrian since I was a child La'an. I've never told anyone. Never trusted anyone with who and what I am. It's…it's second nature to keep hiding."
La'an isn't sure where this is heading but she is suddenly sure that Una is on the verge of telling her something profound. A wall between them was finally falling. A wall Una has never let down for anyone but La'an.
Una seems to be struggling to find the words. La'an rises and moves to sit beside Una on the sofa, gently grasping her left hand from where she has been clenching and releasing them.
Una shifts and turns to face La'an, her hand tightening in her grip, "I can smell your scent from across the room. I can see the smattering of freckles across the bridge of your nose that are so faint no one else ever notices them. I can see the green ring next to your pupil that is so dark that everyone else just assumes your eyes are brown all the way through. When you had the gene therapy without anesthesia I could hear the groan you subvocalized that no one else caught. I…I can taste you in the air of this room from when we were here two nights ago."
La'an blushes at the reminder of how they spent that night and how Una had worshiped her. Yet, even through that momentary embarrassment, her quick mind is putting together the pieces of what Una is saying. "Your mods…your senses are enhanced that much?"
Una smiles a brittle smile, "Yes. It was one of the most common mods for Illyrians. And one of the easiest to hide once I outgrew reacting to every little thing I heard or smelt that no one else could."
"Oh!" La'an says in lieu of a more eloquent response as she tries to join the dots on what this means.
Una shifts so she is now fully facing La'an, their knees brushing each others and their hands resting between them.
Una takes short steadying breaths as she tries to compose herself. La'an watches Una with a growing sense of wonder as the disparate pieces start to fall into place, "You- you have never told anyone you are Illyrian before?"
Una slowly shakes her head. "No-" She licks her dry lips, "I-I have always had to hide what I was. Always hiding my healing, my enhanced strength and endurance. Always."
The picture in La'an's mind finally solidifies into illuminating clarity, her eyes growing wide, "You- you mean, when you-"
Una slumps, her eyes drifting away from La'an in defeat and embarrassment, " When I have sex with someone? Yes. I was careful when I had those first sorts of feelings. My first sexual experience was with a fellow Illyrian, the son of a friend of my parents who was also in hiding. It…it wasn't a particularly romantic affair, but we both wanted to explore that part of ourselves and I knew I needed to get the measure of how I would react in that situation so I wouldn't be surprised with a human or someone else. I was always very careful the few times I had relationships while in starfleet….always on guard to never appear anything but human."
"So, when I felt you tense…when I thought you were hiding something from me…" La'an began hesitantly.
Una smiled sadly as her hand came up to cup La'an's cheek, "You were right. Only you would ever notice." Una huffs. "I was keeping my strength in check, keeping my speed in check, making sure your nails didn't break my skin and trigger my healing. It's all second nature to me to be on constant guard, to keep my secret."
La'an's eyes shut in relief and sorrow as she finally understood, "You were afraid I would see the glow of your healing if my nails scratched your back. Constantly thinking about your strength and…for Cochron's sake Una, how could you enjoy it when you were thinking about all that!...did- did you even…"
"Of course I enjoyed it!" Una snapped with sudden fierceness as she dipped her head to press a reassuring kiss into the back of La'an's hand where it was gripped in Una's long fingered hold. "I- I- It was just second nature…I -I've only been out as an Illyrian for a few months La'an…it's a lot trying to remember I can trust people. Suddenly telling my brain to shut it off, telling myself it is alright to be myself where people can see the real me."
La'an watches Una with a new understanding and intensity. La'an has never seen Una this uncertain, never considered how much of the woman she loved has been hidden as she tried to keep her secret.
"Show me." La'an whispered.
Una seems startled at the statement, sitting back slightly as she evaluates La'an, her brave proud guise and intense eyes that now challenge Una.
"Show me Una. She me your true self."
Una seems momentarily startled, struck dumb at the challenge. When La'an doesn't waver Una feels her heart beat skyrocket, her stomach suddenly clenching as all the blood flees south and it feels like a small storm of butterflies have taken flight in her gut. Her eyes darken with lust and before she can second guess herself she dives forward to kiss La'an.
La'an, never one to shrink from a challenge meets Una's ferocity with equal fervor.
They kiss with wild abandon, the frantic energy of their kisses seemingly suddenly at a new height.
La'an leans into Una and finds that Una does not give an inch. A thrill races down her spine as their tongues caress one another and Una's hands mold to her waist, the heat of her touch soaking through La'an's thin nightgown.
La'an runs her hands through Una's long locks, relishing the passion that burns between them. In a distant part of La'an's mind she notices that the subconscious tenseness in Una's limbs and frame that was always there before in their previous encounter is now missing.
In a single, sudden move, that does not surprise a squeak out of La'an, Una sweeps La'an up in a feat of strength that makes her head spin.
Una braces La'an beneath her thighs, La'an's legs wrapping around Una's waist naturally, her legs spreading open indecently as her robe parts. La'an shudders as her intimate flesh rubs against the coarse material of Una's gold tunic.
Una doesn't break their kiss or break stride as she steps around the sofa to pin La'an against the bulkhead of her room. Una pulls back from La'an's mouth to run kisses down her neck, then across her collarbone that is peaking out from the quickly falling gown.
La'an's head is thrown back, pressed hard into the bulkhead as she gasps for breath. The erotic pressure of being pinned by Una, surrounded by her as she demonstrates her Illyrian strength has La'an feeling like she has suddenly been set aflame. La'an may be small in stature but she is head of security and is suitably muscled through intense training and rigorous personal drive to be the most capable security officer Starfleet has ever had. Her ancestrally modified Noonien-Singh genetics and intense training lend themselves to a physique that is muscle dense and thus surprisingly heavier than she first appears. She is not a lightweight, but Una is holding her weight as though it were nothing, Not a single sign of stress or fatigue as she holds La'an pinned to the bulkhead and ravishes her.
La'an's gown falls down her shoulders and is just about hanging on now as Una rebraces La'an by pressing her leg up between the apex of La'an's legs, straddling her upon one well muscled thigh, her left hand coming to hold beneath her left armpit. Una's right hand skims across La'ans breast and she kisses a path to her chest, laving her nipple with lapping strokes.
Una's breathing is deep and even as she husks against La'an's skin, "So soft…taste like a fresh summer meadow…salt…La'an."
Her voice is deep and husky. La'an groans, "Una, please."
Una's right hand glides from La'ans breasts and goose bumped flesh, down her narrow waist, fingertips tickling across toned abs until they tease at the apex of her groin. Tease at where La'an has now started grinding into Una.
Una uses quick, nimble pressure to push La'an higher and higher.
Una huffs a laugh, a teasing lilt in her deep voice, "So perfect. So good."
La'an grinds down on the tense thigh that doesn't give a single inch and doesn't even waver against her frantic rutting. She comes silently, her breath stuttering as she bites her own tongue. Una raises her head to pepper chaste kisses across La'an's damp cheek, whispering "Breathe La'an, breathe." She orders softly.
La'an, whether out of natural inclination or some deep seated trauma from her childhood is remarkably quiet even when in the throes of orgasm. Una watches her shudder and strains her ears to hear the subvocalized and muted little groans that escape as La'an begins to breathe again through her quaking release.
Una braces La'an once again, her legs wrapped around her middle and carries her to the bed in three long legged strides.
With controlled strength she lowers La'an gently to the bed like she is some precious deity about to be worshiped. She settles La'an on the bed with smooth motions and nary a wobble or any sign of strain.
La'an is loose limbed and a little drowsy from the rush of post orgasmic hormones, she shuffles her gown off and lays on the bed in all her nude glory, still damp hair splayed out around her head as she eyes Una at the foot of the bed, "You are wearing entirely too many clothes."
Una smirks a dazzling smile, as she reaches for her golden dress tunic and makes quick efficient movements of stripping it off even as she slips her boots off and then peels her underwear and the skin tight black leggings stained with La'an's pleasure from her legs all in one go.
Una crawls across the bed to hover over La'an. La'an can't help but think that Una looks like some kind of Amazonian warrioress from a Greek myth. Una lowers herself to kiss La'an gently at first but with building intensity.
Una feels herself becoming lost in La'an, their hands mapping each other.
Una shifts so she is lying on the bed facing La'an as they exchange kisses and soft caresses. The heat between them doesn't fade but stays tempered at a moderate burn while they indulge in a mutual need to be close to each other, to each other's flesh with hands and lips. Their fronts pressed close together, their legs intertwined.
Una pulls back, her hands mapping nonsensical patterns across La'a's waist and outer thigh. She offers sipping kisses as she groans, "You smell so good. I can taste you in the air with every breath, smell how much you want me, hear your heart beating so fast."
La'an groans into the kisses, "Fuck!" The expletive slips between her lips as her hands drift to Una's chest, cradling the weight of her breasts as she caresses them and teases her nipples.
Una smiles into their kisses, her hand moving down to between the apex of La'an's hips. La'an groans and gives a lazy thrust to bring her wetness into contact with Una's seeking fingers. Her long, nimble, strong fingers which tease La'an just right.
"Stop fucking teasing me" La'an growls through a smile.
Una smothers a laugh as she presses her thumb into La'an's clit, leisurely applying pressure but not moving fast enough to bring anything but torment.
Una luxuriates in tasting La'an's glistening skin, teasing her, trailing her touches across her inner thighs, skating across her vulva and back to swirl tighter and tighter circles around her clit.
La'an's kisses become a little vicious as she nips threateningly at Una's lips.
Una smiles into the kisses that have just a little too much teeth, and just when it seems like La'an might actually bite her for real she plunges two fingers deeply into La'an making her hiss in satisfaction.
Una begins a quick pace that has the embers between herself and La'an rising quickly to an inferno.
La'an's hands map the strong muscles of Una's back, caressing and flexing against her flawless skin.
La'an begins to roll aggressively back to meet Una's thrust but Una's frame doesn't give this time as it would have previously, her modded strength letting her easily meet and surpass La'an's increasing energy. She twists and crooks her fingers making La'an issue a whispered gasp as she clenches her eyes shut, her short nails breaking skin in shallow scratches across Una's back. Una hesitates for a moment as though some old instinct is ringing in her head that she has to stop, that she has to hide this evidence of her true self. Yet La'an merely presses closer to her, steals another kiss and meets her eyes with so much understanding and reassurance that Una casts off the self doubt and resumes her motion. A dim orange glow from Una's healing bathes La'an's hands for a few moments. La'an runs her hands across the glow, forcing her eyes to stay open against the building pleasure so she can take in the glow across the back of Una's shoulder blade, "Warm" La'an whispers as she caresses the glowing skin where her shallow nail marks suddenly disappear.
Una seems to pause for a moment again, drawing back to meet La'an's eyes. La'an is about to snap at Una for teasing her and stopping but when she catches sight of the seriousness and vulnerability in Una's gaze she bites her tongue, her hand gliding from Una's shoulder to caress her lover's cheek in an act of unspoken reassurance. Una weighs La'an and then seems to come to some kind of unspoken decision, finding whatever she needs in La'an's gaze to reassure her. Una whispers between them "Tell me if it's too much?" her tone is hesitant and uncharacteristically vulnerable. But there is so much trust in her face and her eyes that La'an can do nothing but nod back wordlessly. Unsure what she has agreed to but trusting Una nonetheless.
Una steels a deep kiss and then without further comment she picks back up fucking La'an, plunging her fingers in and out with increasing speed and growing strength. Inhuman speed it soon becomes clear as La'an holds on for dear life, her hands splaying across Una's back and her legs falling wider open. She feels the liquid burn between her legs reach a new height all too quickly. It's intense and every nerve ending feels like it is being lit up and overloaded by Una's frantic touch. La'an struggles to focus, tipping her head back so she can lock eyes with Una one last time before she screws them shut, a second small nod the only thing she can offer as acknowledgement of Una's words and actions, and a reassurance that La'an is okay…more than okay.
Una speed and strength picks up to the point she rolls La'an fully onto her back and is well and truly fucking her into the matress. La'an feels the strength of Una's body as it covers her. Knows instinctively that even if she was to buck back she would be unable to dislodge her…and yet, despite this show of strength and instinctive knowledge, La'an doesn;t feel trapped or afraid. She trusts Una. Una's strength makes her feel safe and protected, she knows Una will always protect her. Will never hurt her. She feels like Una is everywhere. La'an is inundated by sensation. Una's fingers inside her pumping at speed, intermittently crooking, twisting and scissoring until she adds a third finger that pushes La'an's pleasure to that indescribable line between pain and pleasure as she is further stretched…and yet Una doesn't slow down. Una does not show any sign of tiring as her Illyrian endurance allows her to focus completely and unerringly on her task. Her pace becomes punishing and her thumb somehow presses in equal pace against La'an's clit.
La'an see's stars that have nothing to do with the space beyond her window.
She feels herself fall apart, her skin racing with electricity and her muscles locking and unlocking in the spasms of ecstasy that feels like an uncontrolled power surge. Heat, light and the crackling of her nerves make her breathing stop as she struggles to contain all the emotions and feelings. All the while her eyes have now snapped open and are locked with Una who doesn't stop moving within her, whose grip on her thigh doesn't soften.
La'an shudders as she struggles to tell her body to start breathing again. She feels wrecked, a faint sheen of perspiration across her entire body, and yet Una seems unphased, beyond her dark lust filled eyes and high flushed cheeks.
She doesn't seem winded or tired in any way. Fucking mods.
La'an weakly pats at Una's hand to get her to stop the now more gentle movements that were prolonging her orgasm.
Una smirks smugly, "Had enough?"
La'an scowls even as she fights her sudden lethargy and seemingly pleasure drunken tongue.
"Just need a second, then it's my turn."
Una laughs, wild and free, the kind of sound La'an is sure no one but her gets to hear.
La'an watches her with rapture. She is a revelation.
She caresses Una's back, "You okay?"
Una shrugs as she tips her shoulder forward and glances back to where the orange glow has faded, "It's fine. My mods take care of any minor wounds almost immediately. Shallow scratches only last a minute or two with Illyrian healing."
La'an pushes herself up and is pleased when Una rolls to the side to lie back, allowing her to shuffle forward and straddle her.
La'an studies Una, "Not a bead of sweat. You're not even winded?"
Una seems bashful and a little uncomfortable, "Mods," is all she says with a shrug as she avoids La'an's eyes.
La'an reaches down and catches Una's chin, forcing her to look at her, "Hey…don't do that. You're amazing."
Una, Number One, the Chief, the unshakable second in command of the Enterprise actually blushes.
La'an smiles and dips down to kiss Una, "Now, let's see just how far this vaunted Illyrian endurance goes, hmm?"
Una smiles and cocks a brow as she spreads her arms behind herself in obvious display, "Give it your best shot Lieutenant."
And well, La'an didn't have Illyran mods but she was headstrong and stubborn so she rose to that challenge.
Many hours later when La'an had lost count of the number of peaks she had brought Una to and she lay collapsed, exhausted and deeply asleep across the Illyrian's chest Una watched her with half lidded eyes.
Even Una was exhausted. She watched La'an with quiet awe, her eyes locked on this woman who accepted her for who she really was. For the first time in years Una felt seen, and accepted. All the parts of herself that she hid and shied away from, La'an accepted with reverent love. Una marveled at having been able to let loose, at being able to be her true self with someone. She had held nothing back, she had held La'an without fear, indulged in her scent and taste. La'an had merely tapped her arm when Una's grip became a little too tight, their unspoken communication and trust so natural and strong that they understood each other implicitly. La'an had actually laughed and teased Una about the bed sheet she had ripped a little when Una came from La'an's talented tongue. Una had taken the teasing in the humor La'an gave it, solemnly swearing to replace La'an's sheet, all while marveling at the quiet pride that La'an seemed to radiate at making Una lose control enough to cause even such a small tear in the sheets as she balled them in her fists.
With her last thought before her eyes closed, Una pressed a small kiss to the crown of La'an's head, the woman who loved the real her. Una Chin-Riley the Illyrian. To her own self, at last she could be true.
The End.