No Sleep for the Naughty

Posted on Thu Nov 2nd, 2017 @ 11:56pm by Staff Warrant Officer Nexi & Warrant Officer Cato West

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: Cato's quarters

Things had been fucked, proper fucked for Cato. Not to mention the girl he was, something with now outranked him in the same department. No doubt, a tomorrow problem.

Cato had simply disappeared off the ship for... Reasons... He had been pulled from duty and sent back into the suck, again. This time, throwing up a "W" to counteract his recent shit streak while aboard the Hera. Sitting on the couch in his quarters, lights dimmed and set to multiple accent colors throughout. A bottle of Slaughter House Whiskey on the table, a glass in his hand generously poured with a large square of ice, condensation from the glass pooled at his gripped fingers and dripped onto the floor.

Bare chested, OD green tactical pants, belt, boots off and laying next to the table. A chain dangled around his neck with his MACO tags back on, usually a sign he's going through some shit. A relic from his past was laying there, a MACO modified MK23 MOD 0; cleaned, oiled and sitting in the cherry wood velvet lined box. A few new scars were added to his body, wounds still healing actually; including a bite mark from... something humanoid-ish. Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and a bunch of the other blues classics played in the background. Cato's eyes were pinned at the doors leading into his quarters, waiting for someone...

As usual, the doors to his quarters were opened without bothering with the chime as Nexi let herself in, but she stopped cold when she saw Cato staring at the door, as if waiting for her. As the door slid shut behind her, she rested her back against the cold metal, a clear hesitation in her desire to join him on the couch; she had just come from Sickbay getting her black blood levels checked, and was dismayed to learn that even with measures to counteract this strange phenomenon, her levels were steadily growing. The first time Cato had ever seen true fear in her eyes was the day he had come to see her in the Artan Fortress Medical facility after learning of Nexi's infection; since they had been getting closer, he had been tested as well, and though hearing that he was clean should have brought relief to Nexi, it only heightened her fear as she didn't want this thing to be in him too. Seeing him now with still healing injuries, that fear was renewed in her eyes; she was clearly afraid to be near him, to touch him. They had both been told that this infection required direct blood to blood transmission, they should be safe to kiss and even be intimate, her fear was completely irrational, but somehow that didn't make it any easier for her.

"Hey," she finally said in soul-weary tone, still glued to the door.

“Hey, pretty girl.” He smiled, hauling that glass to his lips and taking a sip of his favorite poison. “I missed you.” His gaze was glued to her, having missed looking at her. It felt like it had been six years since he had seen her, in reality it was more like a month. “Funny thing, I actually really missed you while I was gone.”

"Maybe I missed you too," Nexi replied with some hesitation, but even that small, noncommittal admission was a grand gesture for one as emotionally constipated as her. She still seemed to be uncomfortable, standing stiff against the door, but she was here, and that had to mean something! "I woulda come by sooner, but I'm not allowed to skip any of my scheduled checks, so I came here as soon as I got out of Sickbay..." she admitted with some embarrassment, looking away from him like she couldn't bear to meet his gaze anymore.

Nexi felt so torn between the desire to be near him and the need to keep him at a safe distance, and more than that she hated what this infection was doing to her, how it was changing her, not just on a genetic level, but in her personality as well; how it was forcing her to find ways other than rage to function, and how it kept in her constant fear... Sometimes she would look into the mirror and she couldn't even recognize herself. Would Cato see these changes in her? Would is affect how he felt about her? Would he stay with her or... No, Cato was many things, but Nexi knew that above all else he was loyal, he wouldn't just up and abandon her, but she still feared that outcome and she hated herself for it.

“Sweetheart, the ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy. Nothing worthwhile is easy. Your ability to overcome unfavorable situations will provide you with time to demonstrate your true strength and determination for success. You’ve always set your standards high, your greatest achievements lie within the infinite feats you continue to achieve in your life... This? This is nothing but a blip on the motherfuckin’ radar.”

Cato took a deep breath, another sip of that drink in his hand. “I love you, that means I’m here to stay.” He smiled wickedly “Now get that ass over here and give me a kiss.”

With a bemused flutter of her eyes, Nexi finally pushed off from the door and crossed the distance to the couch, plopping down beside him; she felt the conviction he felt as the words fell from his lips, she knew he wasn't just saying it to placate her, that he believed she could to conquer this, but she wasn't so certain of that herself; after all, he had been gone a while, he didn't know how things had developed since he went on his op.

"It's getting worse, progressing faster than that Commodore woman that got infected..." Nexi said sadly, turning her face away from him when he moved in to kiss her. "I can't fight this! If anything, fighting it is making it take over faster; I don't have the control over my emotions that other woman has, I can't stop feeding it! The doctors, they ain't said anything to me, but I could feel it... They don't think I'll survive whatever it's doing to me." She didn't want to give up, but at the same time, she didn't see how she could overcome this! Then she exhaled a small sigh with a shake of her head to brush it all aside; there wasn't anything she could do about it right now anyway.

"I'm sorry, I weren't trying to... kill the moment, I just... I'm scared, Cato, and I ain't used to being scared..." Another sigh and she finally raised her gaze to once again meet his. "How'd the op go? I saw one of your boys limping into Sickbay, but he looked right pleased with himself; I take it that meant things went well?"

"Ever thought about embracing it?... I wish my uncle Caleb was here. Man has been to the bottom of the abyss and beyond. This kind of shit is within his grasp." He paused, finishing off his drink and placing the glass atop the table before snaking his arms around Nexi's sexy body. "As for the op, it was an op. Went the way I needed it to." he let a deep sigh escape. "Back to you; One can either fight the darkness, or embrace it. Adopt it, become molded by it and change for better or worse."

He ran his fingernails gently over her left forearm, his other hand resting on the inside of her left thigh "You've got some choices to make, pretty girl. As for fear of infecting me, let's keep up this pretense of me not being alive long enough to care."

On the one hand, Nexi understood what Cato meant by encouraging her to embrace the darkness, but on the other hand, they had all seen what this black blood was capable of and Nexi didn't want to become a monster... She had been working hard to redefine herself as someone more or less worthy of wearing the Starfleet uniform, a good person, and she didn't know if that was possible if she gave in to the blood. As Cato's hands continued to move over her body, her eyes closed for a moment as she weighed her options; Nexi wanted to believe there would be years of tomorrows for both of them to look forward to, but she didn't have the slightest clue how such a thing would be possible for her now...

[Later]

Cato had been fucked, a nice proper fucking, and if the near-comatose Nexi laying beside him was any indication, it hadn't been to shabby for her either! Sex had always been 'work' to Nexi before coming to the Hera, it had never really been what anyone would call stress-relieving for her, but Daytona had been right when he said she just needed to find the right person to do it with because she already felt so much better!

Proper was one way to describe it. A thin layer of sweat made his tattooed skin glisten in the dim light of his quarters. Dog tags dangled around his neck as he moved to sit up. Sliding his bare muscular form out of bed, he grabbed a bottle of water next to the bed. "So, the hell has been going on while I've been gone? Daytona die so I don't have to kill him now?" twisting the cap off, he chugged about half the full bottle before offering it to Nexi.

"Don't kill Daytona," Nexi said with a roll of her eyes as she pushed herself upright to take the bottle of water. "He saved my life and he's been teaching me meditation bullshit and how to fight without rage," she continued, then took a drink. Her sweat dampened hair was stuck to her back, though it did nothing to obscure the scars on both sides of her shoulder where she had been run through with the Amazon's blade; unlike Cato, Nexi didn't have many scars, mainly because she had been good at avoiding damage, and when she did take damage she was good at making an effort to tend to her wounds so that any scarring was minimal, but these new scars were definitely noticeable, having healed into jagged red-black marks because of the black blood.

"Not a lot's happened since you been gone," Nexi said once she finished downing the water. She recapped the bottle then tossed it aside and flopped back onto the bed. "We went to one of my old haunts, a station under FCA control, to get a star chart, now we're headed to a place in those charts, hopefully to find the Master and finally end him. I think Enalia's gonna bench me for that one, but I don't really have a problem with that; I don't wanna lose control and shorten whatever time I've got left..."

"Yeah, fuck that guy for what he pulled. If you want to be a blue falcon, you're gonna catch some friendly fire downrange. How that shit goes." Cato made note of the new decorations on her body. "No she won't... You'll go, it's what you need. Closure. Revenge, whatever. I'll run point for you and see that you get it."

He took a deep breath and let out another big sigh, the Hera had been getting to him as of late. Living in the shadows of others and standing around playing snowman wasn't something he was accustomed to. "Or I'll die trying." he added coldly.

"No, I.... I've seen enough death, killed enough people, I don't need to be there to get my closure. Just seeing him dead will be more than enough for me," Nexi said in a subdued tone, then she looked over to him and offered a rare but genuine smile, not one of her usual smart-ass smirks. "And knowing you'll be there helps; I know you'll do what needs to be done. As for Daytona... we didn't know it then, we weren't allowed to know, but he was under orders; them Temporal guys don't mess around about the things they know and keeping it a secret. Don't mean I'm not basically still pissed at Daytona, but now most of that anger is directed at the real reason we were so blindsided. Since he's cleared that up and we've had to work together to control my anger, well I guess I don't hate him anymore."

"Right..." he narrowed his eyes in her direction, this wasn't the same woman he had left a month ago. A genuine smile? That's a rare thing with her. "Got it, sounds like you two figured your shit out..." his voice trailed, sitting back on the edge of his bed with his back to her. Placing his face in his hands and then running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Can't win." he muttered to himself before pulling his shit together; "How's the star? Any progress?"

Nexi's smile quickly faded as she saw his mood going south. "Don't... Don't do this, Cato, please, I can't... I can barely cope with what's in me now, I can't deal with... this, whatever it is. I don't know what you're blaming yourself for this time, but just don't, stop it, you didn't do nothing wrong, everything was fine, you got me feeling good about things... Just, please Cato..."

"I'm fine." He paused "Just me processing, things." he moved to lay down next to her, his large muscular body conforming to how she lay in bed. His head nestled perfectly in her cleavage, another deep sigh. "We ready for retirement after this?" he nipped at her skin playfully. "I'm getting awful tired, these days."

"Yeah, yeah, we can sleep..." Nexi said, putting her arms around him. "I know the last thing you probably want is to hear me talking about Daytona again, but he's been working with me, helping me learn to let things go so I ain't got all this anger building up inside me, letting go fault and blame so it don't eat me up... It's survival, I don't have a choice, if I don't deal with it then it could literally kill me, or even worse it could kill everyone around me, and I- I don't really know what I'm trying to say right now but it- it comes from a good place?" Nexi sighed as she stared at the ceiling for a moment, running her fingers through his hair as he listened to the beat of her heart. "You just gotta stop blaming yourself, especially for things that ain't really your fault." Then she frowned and looked at him. "Wait, when you said 'retire', you meant sleep, right? 'Cause sometimes I get hu-mon words mixed up."

"Yeah, I did." He smiled and shut his eyes. His breathing slowed, his tense posture relaxed as his body became putty up against hers. "I'm glad you're finding peace. Even if it is in the most unlikely of places." he paused as he bit his bottom lip. "I missed you, a lot... This is different for me and it's a little scary. Emotions and I don't do well."

"Oh, like I'm the Nagus of all this emotional shit?" Nexi replied with a snicker. "And I missed you too... Oh, and apparently so did T'Pral," she continued, letting that last line just hang there with a grin to see how he would react to it.

Cato laughed and kept his eyes closed "That a fact? Guess you can't ghost 'em on a small ship... Especially when they're the Chief of Security. That's gonna end well." he chuckled. "I'll handle it, mend the relationship. Could've sworn I friend zoned her." he cracked one eye open "Sorry, I had a weakness for spots and ears before I met you." he bit his bottom lip. "Then I moved on to the whole finding my equal and falling in love thing." both eyes open now, seeing if she caught that last bit.

"Yeah, she's pretty pissed you didn't set the record straight before you started chasing me, we both got dibs on the ass-whooping of the century for that. But I think we all know who your ass belongs to now; it was a done deal a long time ago, even if neither one of us knew it, back when you dropped the L-word in the 'Star, so stop playing coy like it's some grand confession now," Nexi said teasingly, still grinning.

"Already happened, she can thank Daytona for the junk punch." his left eye twitched slightly as raised up slightly and gaze locked with Nexi "Oh? Grand confession?! No, it's the fact I'm STILL saying it. That's the confession." his left hand dragged his fingernails gently across her bare stomach, headed down to her right thigh. Fingertips gentle brushing past, sensitive areas, his voice softened "I can stop saying it, if you want."

"Words are just words, I know what you feel for me, but I also know what those words mean to you, I won't make you stop," Nexi said simply, then feigning disinterest with where his hand was going, she added playfully, "And I thought you were tired."

"I was, until you got that look in your eye." he bit his bottom lip. "When you look at me that way, it makes me want more with you." his fingers continued to teasingly graze right between her legs. "It makes my heart pound through my chest and puts me at the mercy of your will."

"Mercy?" Nexi replied with a snicker. "Don't think I've ever been called 'merciful'." One hand moved to grasp the chain around his neck, using it to pull him up so that they were face to face, but she stopped him just short of kissing her. "What if I don't want to be... merciful?" she asked against his lips, then once again feigned disinterest by turning her head slightly to look at the tags at the end of the chain.

Two ultra-dominate people in the same bed, naked... Would end up the ultimate power struggle for who got to be on top. Cato's left hand moved to gently grasp her throat. Controlling her, just triggered this switch in him. He enjoyed taking control of Nexi just a bit too much in the moment; Placing a soft kiss on her lips and pulling at her bottom lip with his teeth. It more than apparent that he was fighting back his very dominate tendencies in the bedroom. Her past stayed fresh in his head and is what kept him from really unleashing on Nexi. Or at least making her very sore for a few days.

Nexi relaxed into the hold and let him kiss her, even allowed herself to enjoy it, humming with amusement as she could sense his resolve to hold back wavering; one of these days, she was going to have to show him some of the tricks she had picked up on the job, but for now she was more than content with a simpler approach to intimacy as it made it easier for her to reacquaint herself with sex for pleasure rather than profit.

"Mmmm, if I could shock the shit outta you without hurting myself, I would," Nexi said with amusement once their lips had parted. "I would also like to point out that you don't look like you're at my mercy... I wonder if I could ever get you to beg for it?" Certainly another challenge for another day. Instead, she wondered for now if she could break his resolve... "What were we talking about?" she said nonchalantly, as though she had completely forgotten that his hand was at her throat and he was, well, poking her.

"Me? Beg? Never..." he placed a soft kiss right above her collar bone near her neck. Dragging his bottom lip up her neck to her ear, he whispered softly "You, being submissive to me is a different story." he nipped at her ear playfully, kissing her jawline, "Maybe I'll even get you to call me daddy." he chuckled, before pulling away and laying down on the other side. This time, testing her resolve.

Nexi knew there had been a reason she liked him: he liked to mess with her and challenge her expectations just about as much she did! But she wasn't taking his bait! "Oh, we're going to sleep now? G'night!" Nexi said, then rolled to her side with her back to him, shifting just a little closer so that her backside was touching him.

Oh, that angle was too good to pass up. Turning slightly, Cato's right hand delivered a firm smack across her cheek. The resulting jiggle and instant hand print made him smirk wickedly. "I'm not going to sleep until you call me daddy, now." he smiled and bit his bottom lip.

"Then I guess you ain't getting any sleep tonight," Nexi said with a grin, wiggling her butt at him.

And as he pounced on her, she knew she wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight either...