Previous Next

New Horizons

Posted on Sat Sep 26th, 2015 @ 8:39pm by Staff Warrant Officer Nexi & Lieutenant Daln Hadren
Edited on on Sat Sep 26th, 2015 @ 9:08pm

Mission: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Location: Wandering Star
Timeline: Immediately following What a Night

..:: Hours Later ::..

Daln blew out his breath. What hair he did have was messed up, and he was lying on his back in the middle the Wandering Star's cockpit with Nexi's head on his chest. "I wasn't sure what it was like for you, but it was great for me." He looked at her haltingly, wondering if he had said too much. He didn't want to drive her away. He wanted her to feel comfortable around him and with him. He wanted to be a safe harbor for her in a lifetime of far too many storms.

Nexi chuckled with a grin. She was never looking at her cockpit or any of the co-pilot consoles the same ever again. Star above, and the things they did in her chair... "It was definitely... memorable," she replied teasingly. Already, her mind was wandering back through the last couple of hours, especially to that little trick he did with his tongue, or even better, the look on his face when he learned how pleasurable her body's natural electric charge could be; what had started gentle and tender hadn't exactly stayed that way! "Maybe next time we should actually try to make it to the bed so the deck plating doesn't tear us up," she added tiredly, but she didn't seem to be all that upset about a little rug-burn. This was one night she would not soon forget, or hopefully not at all...

Daln's arms were wrapped around Nexi and he held her tighter. "I could get used to this," he said, grinning. "Well, the sex was great, but this," he said, holding her tighter. "Keeping you safe right here with me." He buried his lips in her hair, smelling the grease that was just as great a perfume as Andorian wildflowers or musk. "With what you went through, I'd say a little safety is in order," he teased. But there was nothing joking about the look in his eyes. His father had always said be careful who he gave his heart to, but right now he thought it was gone.

Nexi wasn't much for all this huggy-mushy crap, but since Aewia insisted on hugging and cuddling, Nexi had been getting used to it, and now in Daln's arms, she definitely get used to more of this... "You can't protect me from everything," Nexi cautioned quietly as she put an arm around him.

Daln didn't like the sound of that. "I can try. I don't want anything to hurt you. I won't let it." Daln was a protector, a fighter. His job was to protect the crew, and he saw it as his job to protect the woman he loved. And that was Nexi. His feelings were more than obvious to any empath that was even inside the cargo bay. Hell, a human with above average esper abilities would feel it.

Nexi could feel it, but she didn't understand the emotion, it had become so foreign to her. She looked up at him, her dark eyes peering into his, trying to understand this feeling from him. It was warm, and she could faintly remember feeling something similar a long time ago when she was just a child, before her mother had died...

"I told you I won't give up my work," Nexi reiterated for him, trying to be firm but not mean about it, "and I can't take you with me when I have a job to do."

Daln's eyes tightened. "I know. But it won't stop me from trying to protect you when you're with me." He sighed. "That's what I do. I'm a protector. And I don't like anything hurting anyone I care about. Not since the war. I swore that no one I cared about would be hurt ever again." He leaned his head back and blew out a breath. "I'm just going to have to get used to the fact that I can't protect you all the time."

Nexi sighed. She swore she wouldn't change who she was for anyone, that she would always be herself no matter what, but she had already slipped on that vow; she'd let Aewia make some changes in her life, and even Nexi could reluctantly agree that the changes weren't all that bad... And thinking on this, it made her wonder if she should maybe make another change in her life; maybe it was time to retire and take up a different line of work? Enalia had not outright made any offers, but she had hinted that opportunities would be open to Nexi if she wanted them. Maybe she could enlist? No, that would be too much of a change too quickly and that immediately put an unease within Nexi, but at least the seed was planted in her mind.

"I'll try not to get myself into too much trouble," she offered instead, hoping that this small promise would be enough to ease his worries a little.

Daln grinned, apeased for now. "I can live with that." He turned his head and looked at Nexi's eyes. "I still need to get some sleep. I have training in the morning. Thorne is starting to rely on Bart too much, Hernandes is feeling invicible and the rest of them...I need to know what they are capable of." He paused for a moment. "Care to join me? My quarters aren't too far from yours."

"You do realize I have a bunk on the 'Star, right?" Nexi said teasingly, but then she nodded an acceptance of his offer. "Let's go, just don't let me sleep in too late. Aewia gets confused when I'm not around in the morning." Nexi stood and stretched, then started picking up their clothes scattered about. "And if you need some help with training, I could step in and give you a hand." She could definitely take anyone feeling invincible down a peg or two.

Daln chuckled evilly. "I might take you up on that. If Lt Santiago doesn't mind. I'd have to clear it with him," he said as he pulled his jeans on. "Though I have to say, two hot women beating each other to a pulp sounds...sexy."

"I'm still a civilian, I can do whatever I want, and no one is beating me to a pulp," Nexi assured him as she tossed his shirt to him then started to don her own clothes. "Oh, do you have any real coffee at your place?" If not, she could take some of her own stash to his quarters for the morning. She could not function in the mornings without at least a couple cups of coffee.

Daln caught his shirt, then shook his head as he put the shirt on. "Nope. I have plenty of Betazed tea, though."

"Tea..." she replied with a grimace. Yeah, definitely grabbing some of her personal stash... "You sure you don't wanna stay here on my ship? My bed is comfy." Nexi finished dressing then tried to tidy up her console a bit while he picked up the remnants of the picnic basket. She'd never had anyone stay in her ship like this, she always preferred their place so she could leave as soon as she was done with them, but now she kind of wanted him to stay here...

Daln thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I could stay here." He had his clothes on except his shoes and socks. Still, the bed did look comfortable. He crawled into the bed and saw that there was one pillow, but he could serve as a pillow for her if she wanted. Of course, if she wanted the pillow, he'd be fine with that, too.

There was also a knife under the pillow, so before his head could hit the pillow, Nexi dove onto the bed and made a grab for her trusty blade, pulling it away and setting it on a bedside table, then she shed her pants and crawled up against him in just her tank top, hoping he wouldn't notice how embarrassed she was about the possibility of him accidentally getting hurt by one of her hidden blades.

He was caught off guard for a moment, then lay his head down. He yawned, very tired. He had had a long day and then the evening with Nexi; while it was extremely pleasurable it was also tiring. He opened his arms as Nexi crawled into bed with him. Almost immediately his eyes began to droop.

Nexi was not that far behind him, her eyes growing heavy and closing for the night as she rested her head on his chest, the sound of his heartbeat lulling her into a deeper sleep. But her night was anything but peaceful. Nexi had always been careful about sleeping too deeply where she could not control her mental barriers, especially around Aewia now that her telepathy was returning. Nexi typically had very vivid, disturbing dreams; she had gotten used to them, but she didn't want anyone else seeing these images, but sleeping too deeply and her mental barriers dropped and suddenly her dreams were broadcast to anyone telepathic. In this one, she was standing in the cargo bay, her ship, her freedom, destroyed. She was shackled and her mentor was pulling her away from the people she cared about, dead and bloodied on the cargo bay deck. Daln and Aewia were among those bodies. Then her mentor took her to his ship and locked her in a holding cell to take her back to her former master on Ferenginar. Inside the dream, Nexi couldn't even weep, she was so hollow and numb from the loss, but the slumbering Nexi began shedding a few tears. It was her greatest fear and this dream haunted her frequently; now that she had people that she cared about, she worried that they could be used against her. And she didn't care about what happened to herself, she just didn't want them to get hurt because of her...

Daln's dreams began to intertwine with Nexi's. He found her, snapped the neck of her owner, and released her from her cell, taking her into his arms. The real Daln's arms tightened around Nexi's form, and his fierce protectiveness of his loved ones came out in full force, comforting her and calming him. They spent the rest of the night in each other's arms, their dreams intermingling and separating and mingling again. When Daln woke, he realized his shirt was wet and that his arms were sore from holding Nexi so tightly. "Hard night?" he asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it," came her muffled reply, her face buried against his chest. She had realized at some point that not only was Daln aware of her dreams, but that he had been affecting them, and it made her feel vulnerable, a feeling she did not like at all. And she felt like a wuss for crying on him. Fuck, she was stronger than this! "Maybe we shouldn't do this again," she said quietly, pulling away from him so she could go to her kitchen space to make coffee.

But Daln wasn't having it, and pulled her back down on the bed with him. "Oh, no, you don't. What's wrong?" He didn't want to lose his girlfriend the very next day after getting one. That would suck. And it made him feel just like he had when all those other women dumped him: inadequate, unwanted, and definitely not good enough.

"I can't do this," Nexi said in a raw, raspy voice. "What if you get hurt? Fuck, I had a chance to get to know my father and my sister once when I was younger, before he died and Aewia's brain was cut apart... but I stayed away so that the fallout from my work would never touch them," she said in a pained rush, but with that admission came the guilt of knowing that if she had been there, maybe she could have prevented her Father's death and Aewia's torture. "I don't know what to do! I don't want all these people around me, I work better alone, but you and Aewia, you make more want more than that loneliness, and I can't chance it or you might get hurt!"

Daln grinned. "I'm a security chief. I think I can take care of myself. And no one wants to be alone forever." He caressed her cheek, hoping to ease her pain at least a little. It was hard for Daln to feel it, but Nexi... "I promise you, I won't let anything happen to me. Or Aewia. Do you hear me? Nothing will happen to us. I won't let it." Once again, instead of the gentleness she had come to know, his fierce desire to protect his loved ones came out, with an irrational desire to tear apart the heavens if she wanted him to. At the moment, he would do anything, be anything for her. All she had to do was ask.

Nexi didn't know what she wanted or needed in this moment. Except for coffee, she could always use more coffee... But when it came to the relationship, Nexi just didn't know. Was she just not ready for this or was it all maybe too much too soon? But whatever this was between them, it was addictive and Nexi didn't want it to end. She didn't know how to answer his pleas, perhaps the right words didn't even exist, so she settled for meeting his lips with a heated kiss.

Daln understood completely. His arms tightened around her, his lips sucking on hers, first her upper lip with his tongue, then her lower lip. He stopped as he remembered that he had a duty shift in a few hours. He sighed, saying, "We really should get going." Then he grinned. "I can't wait to see you take Hernandes down. Should be interesting." He sat them up, kissed her cheek and then went to the replicator. He didn't drink coffee, but he did like a glass of juice in the morning. He replicated two plates of a hearty breakfast, a glass of juice, and a uniform for him. He'd have to settle for his motorcycle boots instead of his work ones.

"I don't wanna go and do responsible things," Nexi replied with grumble and a pout, flopping back onto the bed. She would have to get up and go check on Aewia soon anyway, so she might as well at least eat with Daln, though she was looking forward to kicking some upstart's ass... Nexi got changed and met Daln out in the kitchen. She looked at the breakfast he made with a grimace. She wasn't sure she could even identify everything on the plate and instead replicated a bowl of something that roughly equated to grits, then sat on the counter while she waited for her percolator to whistle that the coffee was ready, reaching into a cabinet for a box of mini cheezy crackers and dumping a mountain of them into her bowl.

"So, tell me about Hernandes," she said in between bites of what could only charitably be called breakfast.

Hadren chewed the eggs and a dish from Betazed that roughly equated to bacon. "Well, she's 5 foot 9 with another two feet of attitude. She's from Brazil on Earth where the women all have a LOT of attitude. She grew up with six brothers, competing against them and occasionally kicking their asses. She went through the academy a few years behind my cousin and brother, but she was on the women's wrestling team and mixed martial arts team. She even beat a couple of guys. So now she's feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof like the humans say." He finished his breakfast and chugged the rest of his juice. He looked at Nexi's bowl. She was nearly done. "Any questions? Or do you need a bit more?" he asked with a grin.

"No, that about sums it up," Nexi replied with a laugh. She tossed her bowl back through the replicator, then poured some coffee into a to-go mug. After that first sip, she finally started to feel awake. "I gotta go check on Aewia then check in with Santiago before I come down for any sparring, so try not to have too much fun without me," she said with a grin, heading for the rear hatch. "I just had a new shower installed if you wanna use it, just make sure you lock up my baby when you leave.

Daln shook his head. "I need to get to my quarters to pick up my workout clothes anyway. He recycled his plates and headed towards the door. "I'll see you in the gymnasium at 1100 hours." He turned and left the ship, stopping to look back once, and then heading straight to his quarters. He couldn't wait to see Nexi in action again. What a woman!

Lt Daln Hadren
Chief Sec/Tac Officer
USS Hera

Nexi
Infiltration Specialist
USS Hera

 

Previous Next

labels_subscribe