Skål I

Posted on Sat Aug 27th, 2022 @ 12:02am by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov

Mission: In-Between (S1:E3-S1:E4)
Location: Cassiel's Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 7 at 0315
3035 words - 6.1 OF Standard Post Measure

On

"Computer, lights to evening illumination." Madeline commanded as she walked into her quarters with Andrei. The computer chimed its acknowledgement and the lights came up to a pleasant but not overly bright illumination. "Make yourself comfortable." She offered and moved toward her room and the bathroom herself. She was a bit surprised Andrei had decided to go with her back to her quarters, but at the same time she was pleased that he did. Maddie couldn't really explain why, but she found she also didn't much care. There was someone here who understood her at least in part - one of the darkest parts. There had only been one other person in her life that she could say that about.

Stepping into the bathroom, she leaned in to the mirror and inspected her head wound. It had stopped bleeding and wasn't too bad. She wouldn't need to go to sickbay for any of this. "I have vodka, whiskey, or Romulan ale." She called out to Andrei. "Or wine, if you're so inclined." She pulled her shirt off and began to clean the blood from the side of her face.

Andrei didn't make himself comfortable at first, but instead stripped off his shirt. He had one wound on his chest which needed to be healed. He simply walked into the bathroom after her, his eyes drifting to her form since she too was shirtless. He started to wash the wound on his chest without a word, uncharacteristically silent. There was something about them cleaning in the bathroom together which was unmistakably domestic. Once the blood was cleared away and the wound was clean, he looked at her and answered her simply.

"It's a vodka night for me, love." he answered somewhat cryptically, and then stepped behind her, moving his fingers gently through her hair to inspect the head wound himself. He grabbed the dermal regenerator from the sink in front of her without asking for any direction and started to move it over her injury slowly. As it finished healing, he leaned in slowly and pressed his lips to the side of her neck, his grey and emerald eyes meeting hers in the mirror. Next, he started to wash the wound on her back. "Simulations are fun, but aren't you looking forward to our next real...adventure?"

Madeline really wasn’t surprised in the slightest when Andrei simply followed her into the bathroom and began to wash up with her. What did surprise her - though she didn’t show it - was the gentleness he showed her with his touch. She closed her eyes, standing there quietly with him as he tended to her head wound then opened her eyes once more as she felt his lips on her neck. Her gaze held his reflection easily, she had not changed how she looked at him even with his missing and replaced eye. It made no difference to her.

“I am.” She replied though drew in a slight hiss of a breath as he cleaned the wound on her back. It was long, but not too deep. It stung like hell though getting it wet. “Are you?” There was a note of genuine curiosity in her voice as she brought her eyes back to the mirror.

The only response he gave her was a subtle though, somehow, devious smile, as he continued to clean the wound. He couldn't shake a depression after his harrowing event on the Lovarr; tortured for days by slaves, left in his own filth, and blinded, he had somehow lost a certain spark in his daily action. Socially, he had dropped off the map save the time he spent with Maddie or with his family. He was suddenly silent whereas, at other times, he might have pontificated. Some things didn't need words, however.

"Alien populations lend many opportunities for different sorts of...activities without equal scrutiny of law." he said, lifting the regenerator to her back now and moving it over the skin slowly, watching it heal.

“Alien law.” She scoffed. “What is it to a Terran anyways?” She placed her hands on the sink and bent forward slightly to make sure he had an easy time healing her back for her. “Tell me something, Andrei. How do you feel about us being out here in the delta quadrant?” She asked, the question direct and her gaze reflecting back to him intensely in the mirror.

This was the first time since they'd really spent time together that she had asked him personal questions. Before now, it seemed to him she had enjoyed the mystery. Now it seemed she was more interested in his innermost thoughts and feelings concerning life. He wasn't sure how to feel, but he certainly didn't show it. How many times had he been asked this question and dodged it like a pro.

"At first I was furious...separated from my life and my career prospects and set adrift on the other side of the family with my absent father. But now..." he said, looking at her in the mirror again. "Now things get more complicated, don't they?"

He leaned in and kissed the healed flesh, more gently and slowly than before, lingering there. He inhaled and enjoyed her daily perfume mixed with her natural scent. They had been exercising, yet he found it pleasant; almost sweet. He stood up straight and placed the regenerator on the sink in front of her.

"And you? How do you feel about us being out here?"

Madeline let out a slow breath as he kissed along her skin, though her gaze didn’t waver from his reflection. She didn’t answer right away and instead picked up the regenerator and turned to him, activating it so she could run it over the wound on his chest. “I’m not pleased to be away from my family, I will admit that, but my prospects…” She drifted and hesitated slightly before a slight smile appeared on her face. “My prospects at home would have been terribly boring.”

He smiled too, his hands finding her bare waist over her tight shorts, watching the healing of his chest and looking at those lips he couldn't seem to keep from kissing.

"Dreary, conventional, practical, passionless trifles." Andrei responded. "Building natural alliances with natural allies; ignoring the more interesting possibilities."

“Terrible. Much the same for you too, I imagine though.” Her eyes lifted up to his briefly and then focused on her work. Once his injury was healed, she deactivated the device and put it behind her on the sink. “But out here…” She spread her arms to indicate around them - the Delta quadrant. “Andrei, we could fell kingdoms and bring entire civilizations to their knees because we want to.”

He saw the look in her eyes when she talked about those possibilities. His own mind lit up with that sense of power he had dreamed of since he was a boy.

"And when you say 'we', you mean the Terran race? The Shadow Fleet?" he asked, watching her and releasing her waist again.

"The Fleet is a blade." Madeline replied and stepped closer to him, looking up into his eyes and bringing her lips near his ear. "We could wield it." Her voice was soft, intimate and enticing.

After the incident with Eritrea, Andrei realized he had more of a vulnerability to women then he had thought. He had, therefore, become much more skeptical about anything like this. Certainly the prospect of sharing power never factored into his dream. He understood it would be necessary, of course, and he imagined it would be with someone much less agreeable to him than was she, but also someone much simpler and more malleable. Her proximity hardly shut down his mind, but he still felt the associated desires as a chill ran down his spine.

His right eye picked up her body heat. He noticed a shift in color in her as she spoke into his ear. Particularly, he saw a brightening around her sensual areas. This information confirmed in his mind that she was not merely acting and that this connection between them, no matter how impossible it seemed, had something real to it.

"We could." he said, closing his eyes as her breath passed over his ear. "The biggest issue is that the people who currently wield it are my father and mother."

He had misspoken. It was too late, but perhaps she wouldn't notice.

“Do you hate him?” She asked, pulling back just enough so she could look into his eyes curiously. She had noticed the words he had used, but she seemed to take it as she had with most anything involving Andrei - in stride.

He didn't respond right away. He was irritated and had some contempt, but hate?

"No." Andrei said, shaking his head. "He's never given me a reason to hate him. Of course, I don't love him either. My father has...shown me favor on multiple occasions. Giving me command of Lovarr, for example....and then stripping me of that same command for my 'safety'."

"Do you think he loves you?" Madeline continued to probe with a calm curiosity, her eyes never leaving his face with that dark and steady gaze.

He returned her gaze without trouble or discomfort. He nodded slowly.

"Yes, he does." he said, a question forming on his face. "What are you getting at, Maddie?"

"Do you remember what I told you about one sided love, Andrei?" She asked him curiously. "Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying go too far, but you can use that."

Andrei had decided when he was transferred aboard that he would never manipulate his father for positions or authority. It was far too obvious and he so hated when people knew what he was actually up to. However, as she said it, he knew it was worth considering.

"At this point, Mad Maddie...after what happened....I'm not even sure what I want anymore."

Madeline let out a slow breath and moved her hands to Andrei's hips, drawing him closer to her. "Right now... you want vodka." She smiled and leaned up to kiss him gently.

He kissed her back, his smile gentle and restrained by an inner-distraction. Her kiss centered him a bit, and when it stopped, his smile was a bit brighter.

"Shall we get dressed first?" he said, and then winked. "Or maybe we should see how vodka tastes with even less clothes."

"You behave." She chided him without venom and left the bathroom to head out to the main living area. "Don't think I've forgotten that massage you're supposed to impress me with." She knelt down by the small cabinet and started to rummage around in it, pulling out a few bottles and setting them down on the floor so she could get to ones behind them.

"I haven't forgotten. Though, at the risk of not behaving, I have to warn you that they are full body and involve multiple orgasms." he said, smiling even brighter as he made his way to her couch and sat on it. "So if you're too delicate for such things, you might want to rethink this."

"I believe you specifically said shoulders. Do you not know how to tame those strong hands of yours?" There was amusement in her voice as she finally found the bottle she was looking for and put the others away. "Ice or no ice?"

"You've got to learn to read the fine print." he said with a chuckle. It was all just talk, of course, but it was fun and it distracted him from his thoughts. "Ice."

“Always the damn fine print.” Maddie let out a sigh of mock exasperation as she pulled out two rocks glasses and opened a small pull out door in the cabinet, using the tongs there to fish out a few cubes for each glass. It seemed the woman was prepared to entertain most kinds of tastes for drinks. Finally she got up with the glasses and bottle and sat down on the couch with him. One glass went into his hand and the other sat on her thighs while she opened the bottle, first filling for him and then herself.

“Skål.” She said and lifted her glass.

"Vashe Zdorov'ye." he said, gently placing his against hers and then bringing it to his lips for a sip. When he pulled it back, he nodded. "Pretty good."

He looked at her then, his mind turning in silence for a while. When he spoke though, he did so with confidence, as usual.

"You're story makes no sense to me, Maddie." he said, looking at her with a gleaming curiosity in his eyes. "I don't understand what you really want from Christoph. What is motivating you in your...calculations and plans?"

"That is the question, isn't it?" Madeline chuckled softly and took another sip of her drink. She brought her legs up and tucked them under her. "What fun would it be if I just handed it to you though, Andrei? That wouldn't give any sense of accomplishment."

“But the broader question is: do I even know anything about you at all?” He asked, watching her as she tucked her legs. “You know me in a practical sense. You know my parents and sister. You, on the other hand, don’t come with such certain benchmarks.”

"Well, that is a question for you to answer. What do you know about me, Andrei? I'm sure you read my file, no?" She asked and tilted her head just slightly.

His eye contact with her began to match the intensity of their initial interactions after she said that. When he had started asking her identity questions, she started playing with him like a cat with a mouse. Fascinating. He sipped his vodka again.

“I have read your file. Madeline Cassiel of the Luna Cassiels blah blah blah. Had a normal life , went into Starfleet blah blah blah. Happened to be assigned to the ISS Vengeance before it was lost in the Delta Quadrant blah blah blah blah. It signifies nothing, necessarily.” He said, waving a hand off to the side, all the while holding eye contact, his bionic eye picking up underlying details he only began to read. He found himself wishing he had put his patch interface back on so that he could see more. “There’s a certain Andrei Petrov quirk that affects the way I see the world. When things happen to most people, I consider it coincidence, but when things happen to me or people related to me, it’s fate or careful planning. And you, Mad Maddie, relate to me.”

“Do I?” She asked and almost purred as she looked at him. She could see his bionic eye expanding and contracting with his eye movements, but she didn’t pay it any mind for the moment. “I’ll tell you what,” she leaned closer to him. “Give me that massage you promised and at the end, I’ll give you a very nice hint to that burning question you have. Though you have to promise to keep it a secret.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be keeping lots of your secrets. And you mine.” He stood then and cleared the couch for her, placing his drink on the table. “Now lay down and get comfortable. I said shoulder, I know, but I’m massaging any bare skin I see. Perhaps you want a towel then?”

He stepped over to the replicator and ordered massage oil, hot towels, and a glass of water. He brought them over and sat them down on the table beside the vodka.

Madeline’s brows raised as he went over to the replicator and began to order up actual tools of the trade as it were to do this. Not that she was about to complain; it had been quite a long while since she had a good massage and she really didn’t doubt Andrei when he said he gave a good one. When he came back over, she looked up at him and then shrugged more to herself than anything before she shifted to stretch out on the couch. She grabbed the throw blanket from the back and put it under her torso and then reached back to unhook her bra. She carefully slid the straps off her arms while leaving the rest in place under her, but it did lay her back and most of her legs completely bare to him.

Andre smiled, watching her and feeling the sudden ebb of his manhood beneath his underwear as he did so. He wouldn’t be able to hide it even remotely, but she was facing the other way. He didn’t know if it was going to make her uncomfortable to receive a massage from a man at full mast, so he walked over to the place where he’d dropped his pants and picked them up, starting to turn them around looking for the front.

“Where do you hold your tension?” He asked, his voice slightly soft.

“I don’t know… I’d never really considered that.” She said honestly and lifted her head so she could look back at him. She noticed he was playing with his pants. “You don’t need those, if you don’t want them.”

He found himself disturbingly considerate with her, far beyond what he had done for other women. He dropped the pants and returned to her, first warming his hands on the towel, and then applying oil. He placed his hands on her upper back where her bra straps typically met and applied light pressure to test how much she needed and could take.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll find it.” He said with a smile as he started working. Disregarding his skill set, he could see with his right eye some of the musculature in her back. His motions were smooth and rhythmic and he had an obvious knack for always finding the perfect spot to touch next.

Madeline chuckled softly. “I’m sure you will.”

TBC