To Boldly Go... (IC)

[Cyroa]

He smiled warmly, warming inside and out just by spending time with her. He took one of her hands in one of his, giving it a light squeeze. "I most certainly have. I know it's only been a month or so and this was only our 4th date really. But I couldn't agree more. It has been an amazing time and one I wouldn't trade for anything. I wouldn't have expected to be here a couple months ago, more even, when Moira started in on me. But I'm thankful she kept at it. I look forward to seeing her again as well."

"Shortly after our first date, I gave Moira a gift as a thank you for the entire thing. I wasn't sure if you would find any keepsakes here, so I took the liberty of making sure you'd have something to take home as a memory of the trip. A thank you from me for all the wonderful memories and times we've shared and have yet to share." He reached under his chair to pull out the little box he'd put there previously. The box was a small earing or necklace box. Inside was a pendant and chain. The pendant was a pale green stone, the roughly the size of a thumbnail. It was a light, pale green in color. But when the box was opened and the light touched the stone, after a moment it began to darken down to a deep emerald hue.

[Electra]

Stesha caught her breath as she opened the little box, gaping a little. "Derrick, you shouldn't have," she murmured halfheartedly, even as she tilted the box to let the stone catch the light. "It's gorgeous. I've never seen anything quite like it." She ran her fingertips over the stone, absorbed for a moment in the sparkling facets. "It matches my hair," she added with a grin. "You don't need to buy me things, especially not after a weekend trip like this, but I love it anyway. Thank you." She leaned in and kissed him again, wrapping an arm around him.

[Cyroa]

He gratefully accepted the kiss, enjoying the touch of her lips and close proximity. "I wanted too. It's been a month. So that's sort of an anniversary/milestone, right? I thought it was something you might like and that was reason enough. I originally had thought of it and was thinking I'd hold off for a while longer. But after this weekend, it seemed right." He said, smiling. "I'm glad you like it." It wasn't something she could return or exchange if she didn't, so he was doulby glad.

[Electra]

"Help me put it on?" she asked, giving him the box, then turning and drawing up her long braid so he could fasten it around her neck. "I got you a little present too, but I forgot to bring it with me," she confessed. "I'll give it to you when we get home. It's just a little something I found, but I hope you'll like it. This is just gorgeous. I'm going to have to get a dress just to match it. Where did you find it?"

[Cyroa]

Derrick stood up and moved behind her. Taking the necklace he gently placed it around her neck and attached the clasp. "Siyralis IV. Though I had to take it to this Lor fellow I was referred to in order to cut the stone. A little barter with a friend and he took care of it. The necklace is from a jeweler's in downtown though," he said honestly. To him, finding something halfway across the galaxy was no different than shopping on the other side of town. "It isn't necessary but thank you. And I'm really glad you like it." He bends down to kiss her cheek softly before resuming his seat.

[Electra]

"They're not supposed to be necessary," she teased lightly, lifting her fingers to touch the stone. "That's what makes the best presents!" Chuckling, she finished up her sandwich and cake, then stood to stretch her muscles in the light of the rising suns. "So, what'll it be this morning?" she asked, bending her knee and lunging forward, then stretching to wrap her hands around her ankle. "You're picking this time, whatever you want."

[Cyroa]

He smiled and opened his mouth to respond but was a little distracted. Seeing Stesha stretch tall and then bend down to stretch... "Huh?" That was about all his brain managed for a few moments. Long moments. Wait, what was the question again?

"Uh, right. I was thinking some swimming and snorkeling, followed by a little relaxing in the sun. Maybe a walk or something afterwords?" He didn't say 'before we have to go' as it wasn't something he wanted to dwell on. "How does that sound?"

[Electra]

"Sounds great to me." She straightened up and gave him a smile he didn't quite understand. "We'd better get our suits on. Yours is still in the tent too, right?" Stesha headed into the tent, waiting for him to follow, then began changing, quite without regard to modesty. It seemed a little silly to worry about that at this late date. And even if it seemed a teeny bit mean, she liked making him stutter. She kept the necklace on, though. The chain was sturdy, and it matched her swimsuit, and she liked wearing it a lot. "And today I'll even try to keep from harassing the native wildlife."

[Cyroa]

"Hmm? Wha, what? Oh, yes. Right. Suit." Derrick followed her back to the tent. And while changing for a guy is usually pretty quick, Derrick was still a bit slow. Torn between being a gentleman and looking the other way and just trying not to stare openly wasn't the easiest thing in the world for him. He settled on somewhere in between. Hence, it took him almost longer then Stesha to get his bathing suit back on.

"I'm sure the locals will be disappointed. And slightly hungry too," he said with a smile, holding the tent flap for her.

[Electra]

"Well, they should've thought of that before they chased us into the sea!" Stesha replied, laughing as she ducked out of the tent and back into the bright morning light. "I might have been more persuaded to sneak along some leftovers for them." She hoisted the bag of towels and snorkel equipment and headed out barefoot across the white sand. The beach was small with the tide up, but that just meant less walking, to her way of thinking. Spreading her towel out on the narrow stretch of sand, she sat down and began sorting out her snorkel gear. "What's the strangest place you ever visited?" she asked.

[Cyroa]

Derrick chuckled, following her back out, close the tent as he went. He took out his own towel and spread it out. Crouching down in the sand, he start pulling out the gear and laying it out to help. "Strangest? I'm not sure what you mean. That type of question tends to be largely perception based you know. There are many things out there that are quite different from Earth. In almost every way imaginable. But I'm not sure that makes them strange." He shrugged his shoulder slightly. He wasn't avoiding the question. But he'd spent so much time dealing with things that weren't 'normal', he no long had a bias to work from.

[Electra]

Stesha shrugged, pulling on her swim fins and flexing her toes a few times to make them wave around. "Oh, I don't know," she replied. "Just wondering if there were any that stood out to you as being really, really different. I mean, worlds like this are so close to Earth, and the Lor are kind of like humans, even if much more advanced. But there must be stuff out there that is far more different from anything we're used to."

[Cyroa]

He nodded, picking up his own gear. He'd wait to put them on until he got in the water. He wasn't nearly coordinated enough to try walking in flippers. Without embarrassing himself that is. "Ah. Well, yes. There was a Dyson Sphere. Fully completed and workable. Atmosphere, continents, the works. No clue who built it of course. There was the volcanic world. There were sentient lifeforms, completely lava/magnma based. Another world where the primary material was crystal. The whole world seemed to be giant crystal formations. There was another that the resident sentient race looked like a cross between flying squids/octopi." He reached down to help her to her feet, starting the walk to the water. He shrugged. "Honestly, there are almost limitless places that are nothing like humanity's worlds. It's hard to describe them all."

[Electra]

Stesha duck-walked towards the water, keeping a hand on his arm for balance. "It's strange to think there's so much out there that almost no one on earth will ever see or hear about. I guess maybe it's good. Knowing that there's so much out there, so many worlds and people and things beyond people, it sort of makes the everyday lives of most people seem small. But I think it's really a question of perspective. One life is as important as any other, no matter what world they're on, or how far apart. I think it's kind of nice, really. Less lonely." She shuffled into the waves, splashing up water with every step, wobbling dangerously but not falling yet. "I mean, I don't want anything to happen to Earth, but if it did, there would be someone to notice. And we'll always have the world of fuzzballs." She laughed.

[Cyroa]

He smiled, getting her to the water. Finally, he let himself sit/float as he tried to get his own gear on. "That's rather insightful and, in my opinion, quite true. The people on Earth might never get to see or even know the wonders of the galaxy, but they are not alone. Far, far from it. The galaxy is made up of a family of a sort." He laughed, amused. "Including ambulatory fuzzballs." Awkwardly, they splashed for a few moments and headed to slightly deeper water. The two amateur snorklers had reefs and fish to discover.

[Electra]

Stesha still wasn't a great swimmer, but her grace improved dramatically when she could start swimming with the fins instead of walking on them. Pulling her mask and snorkel into place, she gave Derrick a thumbs up and face-planted into the water. They stuck close together while they explored, sometimes holding hands, sometimes brushing bodies, but mostly concentrating on the wildly colorful world beneath the waves. They swam around, exploring and collecting seashells, for several hours before Stesha started getting bored and began a nudgey-splashy contest.

[Cyroa]

Not the most skilled swimmer either, nevertheless Derrick was enjoying himself quite a bit. The freedom of swimming and their exploring was almost like flying through space. Better actually in some ways simple because she was there. She seemed to have that affect regardless of the situation.

The playful nudging and splashing seemed to increase the closer they got back to shore, or at least to the point where they could stand. And since he was a good deal taller than her, he made sure to take advantage of that first. Soon as his feet touched the sand below, he escalated the minor splashing to splashing and tickling. Such duplicitous actions were not something Dark Star would ever do, but this was quite different after all.

[Electra]

Stesha shrieked with laughter and squirmed in his hands, hampered by the swim fins and the fact that she still couldn't touch the ground. Tugging them off, she opened one of her flowers and shoved them inside, along with her mask, then turned to wrap her arms and legs around him and do some tickling of her own. "Got you!" she announced, pulling off his mask and tossing it aside with her own, then took advantage of her position to turn tickling into kissing, which was even more entertaining. "And you better not dunk me either," she warned, chuckling as her lips met his.

[Cyroa]

The tickling and fooling around din't last long before it changed in tone and became a diferent type of play and fooling around. Having her limb wrapped around him, combined with the kissing, tended to do that. His fingers went from a tickling assault to lightly stroking and gentler touches. "Ok, you convinced me. Whatever you say," he said with a smile, returning the kiss with fever as his hands and fingers roamed. And not just because her current position was something distracting, though that was a big part of it!

[Electra]

Stesha grinned, pressing herself up against him as she rested her forehead on his. "I like you," she told him with a laugh in her voice. "You're really smart." She kissed him again, trusting that his hands on her bottom would hold her up as she threaded her fingers through his damp hair. "And cute," she added as an afterthought, punctuating it with another kiss. "And, though I haven't really got grounds for comparison, really good in bed." Saying that had her blushing, but the whole situation was pleasant enough that she didn't care at all.

[Cyroa]

Derrick grinned, happily accepting kiss after kiss. He would have blushed from the compliments if his blood hadn't already been pumping not distracted. He still 'gulped' a little though. "You certainly know how to compliment a fellow." He gave her posterior a squeeze. "I not an expert but you are not exactly a slouch either." Her lips were certainly help keep his eyes up and not glancing down at the gap between her suit and skin. He gave her butt a squeeze. "I couldn't tell you when I've had this much," kiss to cover his word fumbling, "...fun with someone as lovely as you. And not just talking about the... uh... ", again kissing was so much easy than having to say words involving 'sex', "yeah, that. You are great. Any way you look at it, you. Yeah." Another kiss to help get over that little stumble. You know, this works; its great. I stumble over words and get kisses. Perfect!

[Electra]

She laughed and framed his face with her hands, looking at him for a minute. "Yep," she decided with a nod, "you're adorable. Just about perfect. So," she added, leaning in to put her lips close to his ear, which coincidentally brought their bodies into an even closer alignment and brought some things he'd been gallantly avoiding looking at right up towards his face, "what do you want to do now?"

[Cyroa]

What do I want to do now? You. Now. A lot. Of course that's what his brain was thinking. What made it to his mouth sounded more like "eruhumohuhyeah" but less articulate. He could happily stare and watch her for hours. No question. He could talk to her about any topic, share his feelings. All sounding like a well educated and somewhat intelligent man. But as soon as the topic started to even come close to talking about ... you know ... his brain shut off or there was a sudden disconnect between his brain and the rest of his body. He became a bumbling tongue tied moron. He could calm face disasters, offer words of advice, and try to talk supervillains down without stumbling. But talking about or even around... it? Or having some prominent and luscious... yeah... practically pushed in his face (not that he was complaining)? Goodbye hero, hello idiot.

Of course, as his brain processed all of this, time was passing. First a few second, then a few more. And of course a few more... Finally his body took action, albeit minor, even if his mouth still couldn't form coherent words. Sliding his fingers under the edge of her bathing suit a little, he gave her butt another squeeze as he brought his mouth to hers in for more than just a quick kiss.

[Electra]

"Mmm, I'll take that as a yes," she chuckled, nibbling lightly on his earlobe. As entertaining as it was to play in the water, though, some things were probably best left to dry land. Rather than bother with walking back, she once again reached out and transmitted them, popping them out in the middle of camp. They teetered, nearly fell, but she just laughed and held on while he caught his balance. It didn't take long for them to duck back into the tent for one last entertaining vacation activity.

[Cyroa]

Hours later, they lay on the camp bed worn out. Snuggling under a light sheet, he had his arms wrapped around her lightly. While the twin suns were still high in the sky here, back home the afternoon was almost over. Cuddled up beind her, he gave her a light squeeze and nuzzled her hair with a smile enjoying pretty much everything about her and not particularly wanting to end the idyllic break they had shared.

"You know you're pretty much perfect too, right?" It was reference from a comment made back before the... you know... "I've had the best time with you. More than I would have believed I could have even a few weeks back. Just being with you is amazing, let alone the... uh... other stuff." Moving on... "I don't really want this to ever end. And I don't just mean this weekend." They'd only been one four real dates so far. Though he wasn't sure if a solid 60 some-odd horus spent together counted as one date or more. Not that it mattered. "You are the best time I've ever had."