The Warmth Between the Stars

Posted on Mon Sep 8th, 2025 @ 2:43am by Ensign Iozhara & Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus

1,597 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Menagerie II
Location: Osirin's Quarters, Deck 4
Timeline: MD008, 0445 Hours

Iozhara stirred beneath the covers, a slow, intentional shift, the soft mattress barely registering her form. Her fingers traced across the chiseled lines of his chest, bare and steady beneath her hand. She blinked once, the low ambient lighting of the room helping her eyes to adjust fairly quickly. She ran her hand over to the curve of his shoulder, feeling the line of his collarbone.

Her breathing apparatus clicked softly as she adjusted it, the sound was intimate and private. She let herself inhale deeply, tasting the silence, the lingering heat of skin against skin, the faint tang of the drink they had shared. It wasn’t solely desire, though that too was present, winding and insistent. It was the weight of connection. A bridge she hadn’t expected to cross so quickly, yet here she was, on the other side.

Osirin had a way of reading her, of knowing the small angles of comfort and pleasure she didn’t even know existed. He had made her purr, and not in any way she’d thought herself capable of.

And now, early morning, she lay beside him, the gentle rise and fall of his chest like a metronome against her own. Heat pooled between them, calm and grounding. She reminded herself that his people, Akadians, were open in ways hers weren’t. What had passed between them last night--intimate, unspoken, and sensual--might not hold the same weight for him. Perhaps it was just one night, a flicker of curiosity and some risk taken. How could she know?

A quiet thought began to creep in, timid but very insistent. Perhaps she should leave. Perhaps she should preserve the memory before it could change, before familiarity settled into something far less thrilling.

Carefully, she shifted, each movement deliberate. Her hand slid from his chest, reluctantly breaking contact, and she eased herself out from under the covers. The mattress shifted faintly, breaking the silence of the room. Sitting up, she drew her knees to her chest, fingertips brushing along the sheets as if leaving a trail through the territory she was leaving behind. She scanned the floor of the room and sighted her dark tunic, turquoise pants and undergarments having been haphazardly strewn in a linear line from the door of the bedroom to the bed.

Akadians, being at their core a Vulcanoid race, albeit distantly, required less sleep, than most other humanoids, but they did require some sleep. Especially after strenuous activity, after a long day. He and Iozhara had engaged in strenuous activity the night, and morning, before, and it had been quite pleasurable for both of them. So pleasurable, that they had engaged in it more than once.

Osirin had been exhausted after the third go around and hadn't even dreamed.

The shifting of the mattress though was enough to wake him.

He slowly sat up in bed, desire fighting with guilt as memories of the previous night flooded his mind.

"Where are you going?" he asked, "why are you leaving?"

She froze halfway to the hem of her tunic. The gentle question cut through the quiet of the room. She turned, slowly, the auburn spill of her hair seeming darker in the faint light. Osirin's sharp eyes were open now--pinning her in place.

"I wasn't--" she began, then stopped. Her voice felt too loud. She gathered it again, going softer. "I didn't want to disturb you."

The words sounded thinner than she had intended. What she meant was: I don't know what this was to you. I don't know if I should stay.

He stood then, letting the sheet that had been covering his body slide back on the bed.

He wasn't intending on reading her mind, and he didn't have to figure out she wasn't being truthful with him, just his intuition told him that, but they had just been intimate together, so her thoughts were right there on the surface.

"I don't know what it means, but it's not nothing. I don't want you to just walk out. To walk away."

The words hit her harder than she expected, heavier than she wanted them to be. Not nothing. For someone like him, so easy with laughter, so open with the world--those words carried something weighty.

Her eyes lingered on the path of clothes trailing away from the edge of the bed. Then, against her own better sense, they found Osirin's again. Not tall, by human standards, but bare, unashamed in the ambient light of his quarters.

"I'm not good at this," she admitted. She pulled her knees tighter, arms folded across them. "I don't... I don't drift into people's lives. Not like this." She exhaled heavily, and looked away from Osirin, down to her toes. "I've never been with anyone. Well, not like this--and definitely not like... that." Iozhara looked up at him with a sheepish grin, recalling their extended sessions of lovemaking.

It hadn't been obvious to him that it had been her first at the time. He'd just put it down to nervousness. The first time, but neither had held anything back the other times.

"Casualness is the norm on my world," he said as he took a step forward. It was a norm I was caught up in for a lot of my life."

"But now, physical intimacy isn't enough. It's just...empty."

"I'm not sure what I want exactly. I'm still figuring things, I'm still figuring myself out, but I know I don't want empty."

He took another step forward. "And I'm honored that you wanted me to be your first."

"But why me? I'm nothing special."

Her laugh came out small, almost brittle. "Nothing special?" she repeated, shaking her head. "Osirin, you--" She stopped herself, lips parting but the words remaining trapped at the edge of her tongue.

Her breathing apparatus beeped faintly. She ignored it and searched his face, the lines of it softened by the dim light, by the trace of sleep still stuck to his expression. He looked so sure in that moment, so steady. She envied him that.

"You made me feel..." she began again, fumbling once more. "Safe. Not just safe--seen. Like there isn't anything I need to hide, not even the parts of me I've always thought would drive someone away." Her fingers drifted down, absently twisting the sheet next to her.

Her eyes caught his again, and for a small moment her chest loosened. She allowed herself a smile, tentative but real. "I don't know what this is either. Or what it should be. But don't you dare call yourself nothing special."

"Then I guess we figure this out together. Are you hungry? Would you like to have something to eat?"

Iozhara shifted, letting the sheets slip from her completely as she stood. Her bare feet pressed into the cool floor, and she felt a faint tremor of adrenaline from the night still running in her veins. Slowly, she crossed the small gap between them.

When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his torso, resting her forehead against the warmth of his chest. The calm, steady rhythm of his heartbeat under her cheek felt like an anchor in a windstorm she never realized she'd been navigating alone.

"I could eat," she murmured into the hollow of his collarbone, her words intimate. "But... for now, I really just need one thing." She ran a finger down his side and paused at his hip.

He had an idea, what she wanted, but he didn't want to assume. "What is it that you want?" he asked as he moved his face closer to hers.

She looked at him and winced a little. "I need to fix my breathing apparatus. It--" she paused, a tiny shiver passing through her. "It broke last night... during our... passion."

That was not what he'd expected, which brought a different type of smile to his face. "Yeah, I can see why that would take priority. Would you like me to help you with that?"

Iozhara nodded, letting the gesture carry the weight of trust she did not offer lightly. Then, without thinking, she leaned into him, her lips brushing against his in a tentative kiss that deepened almost immediately, searching.

His hands had been reaching for her breathing apparatus. He was no engineer, didn't have that mind set, but it wasn't a repair, it was just an adjustment. His hands continued moving in that direction, despite the kiss. Then his hands fell to his sides. He deepened the kiss even further his tongue sliding against hers. Then his arms came up and wrapped around her waist, pulling her against him.

She let herself melt into him, feeling the warmth of his chest beneath her palm, the rise and fall of his breathing syncing with hers. She disengaged and took a sudden intake of air. "Before we get carried away again," she said playfully, "let's adjust this thing."

He gave a brief nod reaching out his hand and taking her apparatus in his hand It was surprising easy to fix into place. He took her by the hand then, leading her back too his bed. They were both off duty for the day. They had plenty of time.

---

Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acaincus
Mission Advisor
USS Astrea


Ensign Iozhara
Nurse
USS Astrea

 

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