T'Pren's Quarters, Still Very, Very Early

There wasn't much about T'Pren's quarters that differed from how it looked the day she arrived. Her bed was made to military standard and a clean uniform was out and ready to go, folded neatly on the dresser. Everything else was Cardassian and bare except for one well-worn hardback book of Vulcan poetry that sat on her nightstand and the guitar case she took inside with her.

She set it against the side of the door to keep it out of the way and then turned her attention back to Rai, her breathing already picking up again and a fresh wave of that overwarm lust pulsing through her. As she stepped out of her shoes, she offered out a pale hand to guide him inside and a particularly fond and welcoming smile to encourage him.

"It's going to change," she promised earnestly. "Of course it's going to change. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing, does it?"

He took her small, pale green hand tenderly and folded her into his arms. His chin rested on the top of her head.
"No, I can live with it," he said. His fears lingered in the distance of his mind.

The door closed behind Rai with its soft mechanical sound and T'Pren let out a breath that was almost identical as he pulled her to him. It was a lot of body contact for the usually reticent halfie and for a moment she was stiff against his chest before she convinced herself that he wasn't going to hurt her. She trusted him fairly implicitly now.

She practically melted against him then, one hand in his while the other slipped around to the small of his back to rest there. She closed her eyes to luxuriate in the touch and the body heat and swallowed a lump in her throat that was part emotion and part hormones. "We can talk about it," she offered softly, resting against him. "Set rules if we need." The slender lieutenant sucked in a deep breath before confessing, "I don't think I've ever been held like this."

"It's been a while since I've held anyone," he said. For a while, he let the crackling energy of desire pass between them, the small patches of their exposed skin exchanged both the anxieties and pleasures of two people new to one another's bodies.
"Lieu--Pren. I don't want to go to war."

T'Pren responded fiercely to the admission, a sharp spike in her desire to take care of the man with his arms around her. She instinctively pressed her lips to his collarbone and tightened her arms around him.

"We're not going to," she promised with fight in her voice. "We're not going to let that happen." And then, a little more gently, she murmured, "I won't let that happen to you. To any of us. No matter what that means."

"I'm very lucky to have this crew, especially you," he said. Leading her by the hand, he sat down on her neatly made bed. He pulled her into his lap, so she straddled him close with a leg on either side of him.
"This is what I need, for a while," he said. Even though need tugged at his insides, it quelled quickly. He kissed her bottom lip, the softness of her making him drunk and dizzy.

(OOC: This is where we fade to black.)

The foreplay was extensive and satisfying, full of empathic and touch-telepathic feedback loops of enjoyment that meant the new lovers got to indulge in all the sensual, exploratory touching their hearts desired. The other psionics on the station were no doubt having some very good dreams.

For that glorious period of time, T'Pren's mind quieted and her body took over in a way she had never actually experienced while fully in charge of her faculties. It was just Rai and Pren and everything else melted away. It stayed like that for quite some time as they lay in the afterglow, catching their breath side by side with their legs intertwined. And even when the world began to reappear, it was in a bleary, unfocused kind of way.

T'Pren didn't dare speak yet, in no small part because she wasn't even sure she could find her voice, but instead she turned her head toward Rai and pressed her lips to his bare shoulder.

He tucked the loose strands of dark brown hair behind her pointed ears. His fingers traced the tiny, pale point down to her jaw line, to the pulse on her throat, to the angles of her collarbone.
He dwelled in the golden waves that came with empathic lovemaking, the feedback of which still lingered within him.
"We probably... can't let the crew know about this. They might figure it out, but, we should probably keep it under wraps for now."

T'Pren's whole body thrilled at the touch, her chin lifting a little to elongate her neck. Her eyes fluttered closed even as she kept her lips on Rai's skin.

Something stirred in her chest as he spoke, hopeful and uncertain and maybe even the tiniest bit fearful. When she finally decided speaking was a thing she needed to do, she opened her eyes again and rested her chin on his shoulder, studying him both through his expression and through their telepathic link. "Was this..." she started, then bit her bottom lip as she tried to come up with the perfect wording to the question she wanted to ask. Finally, she murmured, "I don't want you to feel obligated to anything more than tonight. If this was just something you needed, that's okay. I needed it too."

Rai squeezed her tightly when she reassured him.
"It won't be awkward from here on out, will it? I like our friendship so very much. I hope I haven't ruined it."
He held her chin in his fingertips, and let his the pad of his thumb brush the pillow of her lower lip. He leaned forward and kissed each eyelid.

There was a dull ache in T'Pren's lower ribs where her heart was slowing down after its exertions and while she didn't try to hide it -- how could she, when they were currently so linked? -- she did gently turn it away as best she could. Her eyes closed again and she breathed Rai's scent in as he kissed her eyelids, letting the air out slowly through her parted lips as she curled up against his side. "How could something like this ever be awkward?"

When she opened her eyes again, it was with a small, understanding and accepting smile. "So just tonight then?" she wondered, making sure she was clear on the terms even though that aching part of her tried again for her attention.

"Well, I don't know. I think it's alright to turn to one another in our dark hours, now and again," he said.
"Things could get rough in the next few months on the station. I want you to feel safe," he said, thinking of the Cardassian Gul appearing in her room again.

The ache eased considerably at that and T'Pren relaxed physically as well, letting go of a tiny little piece of remaining tension she hadn't even noticed she'd been holding. A rippling of fondness went through her at Rai's worries for her feelings and she propped herself up on an elbow just enough to press her lips to his in gratitude. "And you'll need to put down the weight of the galaxy occasionally," she reminded him with a wry smile. As she looked down at him, her hair draped forward and tickled at his chest.

Her smile softened into something more deeply honest as she added quietly, "I do feel safe with you."

"The weight of the galaxy? Me? Never." He raised up on his elbows. "Speaking of which, I'm on duty in an hour. So are you. We should both get ourselves sorted out."
He groaned as he dragged himself out of the warm embrace of her arms and bed. The cold station floor and air gave him goose bumps immediately.
"I'll see you, very shortly," he said smirking happily.

"No," T'Pren bemoaned, draping herself, naked and dramatic, across the warm area he left behind on her bed. "Let's cancel the promotion ceremony and say we're sick. With something highly contagious. Something that requires quarantine." Her brows lifted hopefully along with the corners of her lips.

"I bet I could get us a doctor's note," she added with a mischievous grin.

He sat down beside her to collect one more kiss.
"You and I both know if I do that, Tal'Ara will swoop in and take the ship for herself," he said, chuckling at her suggestion.
"You're not going to let Tal'Ara steal our new toy, are you?"

T'Pren curled herself up against Rai to accept the offered kiss, sliding her hand, split-fingered, across the back of his. "I suppose not," she sighed, still very theatrical. "And it is going to need a good christening, after all." Her green eyes twinkled and she wriggled her hips just a little.

"Why Lieutenant," he said in mock innocence, "I have no idea what you're suggesting."
He tugged his dark red uniform shirt over his head, and zipped his top closed.
"If you miss the promotion, you miss the after party, and we both know you won't allow that to happen," he said.

T'Pren grinned cheekily at the Commander and sat up with a soft sound of protest, pushing her hair back with both hands and then keeping her arms up to stretch from her green-tinted fingertips to her pointed toes. She stood with a luxurious movement, still stretching and flexing to wake up her contentedly relaxed body parts.

"I wouldn't miss your promotion," she promised sweetly, slinking toward him with leonine movements. When she reached him, the lieutenant grabbed two handfuls of Rai's uniform shirt and pulled him to her with gentle force. "Captain," she practically purred, and, pressing her naked skin against his uniform, kissed him deeply in the way she'd found during their tryst that he seemed to like best.

His fingertips traced up her spine and down to her hips as she pulled him into another kiss.
"I think, when we're off duty, here in your quarters especially, you can call me Darren," he said, planting a peck on her forehead.

The half-Vulcan shivered pleasantly at the Betazoid's touch and rested against him to graciously accept her forehead kiss. Her smile at both that and his permission to use his given name was positively beatific. If ever Rai had wanted someone whose mind was perfectly still and quiet as company, he had it now. There was no trace of that Vulcan bunker or any of her previous secrets and wounds. They were there, certainly, somewhere, but at the moment it was just the two of them and the present.

"I'll see you soon, Darren," she murmured, thrilling at the feel of his name on her tongue.