What do I do?

Posted on Sat Sep 26th, 2015 @ 8:12pm by Staff Warrant Officer Nexi & Tallara Lifal-Lesteh & Aewia Larani
Edited on on Sat Sep 26th, 2015 @ 9:09pm

Mission: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Location: Nexi/Aewia's Quarters
Timeline: Following 'What a night' and 'New Horizons'

Nexi silently crept back into her quarters the morning following her date with Daln, hoping not to wake Aewia before she was ready. checking to see that her sister was indeed still peacefully asleep, Nexi opted for a quick shower then dressed for the day. Another cup of coffee had her feeling a bit more alive, and when she heard Aewia's morning alarm go off, she replicated breakfast for her sister while she waited for the younger Betazoid to stumble out.

"Morning, sleepy head," Nexi said with a grin when a sleepy Aewia finally joined her in the dining area. She was trying to act like nothing had changed in the last 24 hours, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. It wasn't like she was trying to hide this new development with Daln, especially not from her sister, but the idea of change just didn't come easily for Nexi and she wanted to go back to status quo as soon as possible.

"Morning," Aewia said groggily as she made her way to the table and her waiting breakfast. "How was sex with Daln?" she added nonchalantly as she cut up her biscuits and gravy and sprinkled some more pepper over the whole thing.

The question made Nexi sputter, nearly choking on a sip of her coffee. It wasn't like she was embarrassed, she just hadn't expected such a blunt question from her sister. It was easy to forget that under the innocent, almost child-like behavior that Aewia was still a grown woman. "Uh... it was good, really really good," Nexi said awkwardly. "Am I that obvious?" she asked warily. For fuck's sake, she better not have a 'glow' about her.

"You were last night. I wouldn't doubt it if every empath on this ship felt that." Aewia replied before stuffing a big bite into her mouth.

Shit. "Well, was it good for you too?" Nexi asked, trying to make light of the situation.

Taking a sip of her juice to clear her mouth a bit quicker, Aewia nodded, still not fully awake. "I remembered some things, so I suppose it was good. I think I was going to marry someone after I got back from that last mission but I don't remember who to."

That was wholly depressing. "You... want me to look into your past, see if anyone's looking for you?" Nexi asked, uncertain if this was something Aewia wanted to know about. At the very least, Nexi wanted to give her that option.

Aewia thought about it for a moment, not sure what to do. "Maybe. I don't think I could handle a relationship right now though." Taking another bite, Aewia munched away on her breakfast, trying to remember anything more about the person. "Tall, dark hair, spots... Skilled tongue in every sense of the word... Hips you want to slap with a tuna... And I don't think she was in Starfleet."

Oh gawd, that description! The tuna comment had Nexi choking on her coffee again, but this time with a laugh. "I'll find her, but I won't reach out to her; I'll leave it up to you when you wanna make contact," Nexi offered, took another thoughtful sip of her coffee, then sighed. "How much of this morning between me and Daln are you aware of?" she asked her sister.

"Just the sex. And that your cockpit isn't the best place to do it." Aewia replied, still munching away like it was the most normal thing to talk about.

Nexi facepalmed; although she did rather like doing it in the cockpit... "Well, this morning wasn't so great... I guess I got cold-feet about this whole relationship thing and I'm kinda wondering if I'm doing the right thing getting involved with anybody while I'm still doing bounty work."

Waving her fork at her sister with a chunk of gravy drenched biscuit on it, Aewia gave her a scolding look. "You're involved with me, right? What makes him so special that you would think that way with him but not me?" Then looking at her fork like she forgot the food was there, popped it into her mouth and chewed.

"Yeah, I am involved with you, and I know you ain't oblivious to how worried I am about that," Nexi replied. "I've been careful to make sure no one outside Hera knows about our connection, but the more people that know a secret, or the more secrets you have to keep, the harder it is to keep them. I don't want either of you to get hurt..."

"And I don't seem to remember Daln keeping our secret very well. Fair enough." Aewia replied, munching away at her breakfast some more.

"Revealing his history with you was necessary because you couldn't recall how you knew him," Nexi pointed out bluntly. "I'm sure if the circumstances had been different, he woulda kept his mouth shut." Nexi sighed again, resting her head on the table as she reached over to take Aewia's hand. "I just don't know what to do kiddo, I don't want my work to come back to hurt either of you. What's the hu-mon phrase, something about having cake and eating it?" Which made no sense to Nexi; why would get a cake if you had no intentions of eating it?! "I want both of you in my life, and not just secretly... But I'm not sure I'm ready to leave my old life behind..."

"Life changes us all for better or for worse. I'd love a nice pretty cake to look at but I'd rather eat it and see what flavors I get. As for you... The last time Enalia watched over me, I caught a hint of her trying to get you a provisional rank. I don't know if that's something you'd want, but it might be an option." Aewia spoke as if she were speaking from the depths of her wisdom on this one, but she knew that wouldn't last much longer so she was trying to get it all out at once. "Life has handed us some pretty terrible flavors, but I think the good flavors have made it all worth it. If we hadn't lived the way we had, I doubt we'd both be here at this table right now."

Though Nexi never wanted any of these changes in her life, she couldn't deny that those changes had been for the better. Aewia could frustrate her like no other even on the best of days, but Nexi wouldn't change a thing about any of it because she knew that her life was better now that Aewia was in it. "Yeah, you are a pretty good flavor," Nexi said, pulling Aewia's hand closer to play nibble at her fingers.

Aewia giggled softly at the nibbles. These were happy days indeed, even after all they had been through. "Whatever you decide, I'll be here for you. Now where's my breakfast gone?" she asked, looking down at her plate curiously.

"I ate it when you weren't paying attention," Nexi fibbed with a grin. "You want more?" she asked more seriously, checking her watch to see if they had enough time left before Aewia had to be with her tutor and she had to check in with Santiago. "Tallara won't mind if you're a few minutes late."

"I don't feel hungry... So I think I'm ok." Aewia said, still looking at her plate. "And I think Tallara is coming here today. She wants to see how I... Do something..."

"Do what?" Nexi asked curiously, picking up the plate and sending it back through the replicator.

"I don't remember. I'm sure she'll tell me when she gets here." Aewia replied, just before the door chime rang.

"That's probably her," Nexi said as she rose to answer the door. "Go get dressed, kiddo, I'll keep her entertained while you're gone."

As Aewia headed off to get dressed in one of her one piece jump suits, Tallara smiled brightly at Nexi as she opened the door. "Good morning. Is your sister doing well this morning?" She was obviously one of those rare morning people.

"Yeah, doing real good. She had a really deep moment when we were talking personal stuff. She just keeps surprising me on how much she understands even when she's confused," Nexi said, looking towards Aewia's room with a smile. "Hey, before I leave Aewia with you, I was wondering if I could ask for your help with something. Help for me, that is," Nexi started awkwardly, trying to work up the courage to ask what she needed. "I, uh, kinda can't read all that well. All of my reports to Santiago read like inventories, itemized lists and stuff. I was raised by Ferengi, so..." she trailed off, having trouble finishing her line of thought because of how awkward and embarrassing it was.

"Ah, yeah," Tallara moved into the room far enough for the door to close, then put an arm around Nexi in a half hug. "There are a few courses you could take. The first is a sleep learning program which is mainly used for speaking common. Another is an accelerated course that can theoretically teach you almost the entire language in a week if you use the recommended brainwave stimulators. The last one is tutoring and computer lessons, which is the same track that kids learn with."

Nexi stiffened with the half hug; the only person she let hug her was Aewia, well, and now Daln. "I can mostly speak it alright, but I still rely on my inner ear translator for some stuff," Nexi said, taking a step away from the Andorian/Vulcan woman to reinforce the notion of personal space. "But the hu-mons write a lot different-like than what they talk; it's more... formal, and it confuses me."

"And their language is the simplest to learn of most of the Federation races. I'd recommend the accelerated course then. It's not easy, but you seem like the kind of woman that prefers hard things." Tallara replied, understanding the body language for personal space.

"I do, but this is one of the few things I wanna do right," Nexi said seriously. "However we do this, I just wanna keep this between us. It's kinda embarrassing... Okay?"

Tallara nodded and smiled brightly. "No problem. I'll get a kit from storage and check it out to me, then you can have fun with it."

Nexi nodded, then stood by awkwardly while they waited for Aewia. After a moment, she called back to Aewia's room, "Hey kiddo, you need help in there? You didn't get lost in your closet again, did you?"

A moment later Aewia emerged, mostly dressed. She had the lower half of her jumpsuit right and had gotten one arm into a sleeve, but her other sleeve was inside out and she was struggling with it. "My sleeve isn't right."

"You're not right," Nexi said teasingly, striding over to help her sister dress. She pulled the sleeve right side out and held it open for Aewia to slip her arm in. "Alright, I gotta go check in with Santiago. You be good for Tallara, and have fun." Nexi added, ruffling Aewia's hair affectionately.

"I will. Be safe, ok?" Aewia replied happily.

Tallara smiled brightly as well. "I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with yoga today. If anything happens, we'll call you immediately."

Nexi nodded to Tallara, then grabbed her jacket off the back of a chair and headed out.