Afterglow

Posted on Thu 6th Feb, 2025 @ 12:39am by Makila i'Hartelhai & Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels

1,406 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: Kellian's quarters.
Timeline: Directly after :This isn't the reckoning you were looking for.

ON:

Previously:

If you do not tell him how you feel you will lose him. If that happens, you will regret it forever, and you will hurt him just as deeply as you will hurt yourself.

It was a single fluid motion to get her from where she was seated, to perched gently in his lap. She no longer wanted to resist her inner drive to know this man as deeply as she knew herself. So...she acted. Her lips grazed his jaw as she whispered into his ear "Kiss me, Kieran"

Current:
The racing of her heart was making her a little lightheaded as she couldn't believe how forward she was being, and yet it felt Right somehow. Had she truly begged him to kiss her? Would he? Did he still want to? Now, the seconds ticked by like eternities and stretched out between them in a silence broken only by her ragged breaths.

She called me by my name! Just the realization of that sent shock waves of wonder and joy through Kellian, and he shook from the force of it. For the first time in twenty-odd years, someone was talking to him, not to the person he had learned to be. Tears sparkled in his eyes for a moment, but he blinked them away. When a woman invites you to kiss her is not the time to turn into a puddle.

"I would be delighted, to, Makila." Kellian slid his arms around her, feeling the heat of her skin matching his own. He lowered his head and gently, slowly brushed his lips against hers, reveling in the feel of them against his own and trying to memorize it before pressing more firmly against her.

Makila's enthusiasm was unmatched and their passionate embrace quickly turned into something much more intimate. She was eager enough to share her whole self with him as he was to do so. They'd waited an eternity too long in her estimation of things.

Later:

It was the very wee hours of the morning when Makila woke, warm in the embrace of another. Kieran was against her back and she could tell immediately that he was sound asleep. His mind aglow with swirls of dreams vibrant in his subconcious mind. He was so vividly dreaming that if she closed her eyes it was likely that she would see them alongside him. Deliberately she snuggled back against his bare chest, leaving her eyes open. Part of her wondered what the future held for them, because she'd felt between them the settling of something important and permanent. That really happened. It was even better than I'd dreamed it would be.

In his dream, Kellian was playing kal-toh with Makila as cello music swirled around them. In the weird way of dreams, it felt as if he was both playing the music and playing the game. The game had proceeded from looking like a messy haystack of silver rods to something that looked like two differently shaped pieces of melon--vaguely like parts of a geodesic dome. Kellian held his last rod in his right hand, rolling it in his fingers and debating with himself as to which of two possible spots he should place it. One mistake, and all the game pieces would crash onto the table.

"I think we should insert the last two rods at the same time," Makila told him.

Kellian blinked at her. "Have I ever told you how brilliant you are?" he asked. "On three?"

"One...two...three" she said watching his eyes instead of the pile of the sticks that they were building together. As he moved so too did she, and they completed the puzzle before them. "I love that you think I'm brilliant. But if you're feeling lucky maybe we should up the stakes?"

Kellian looked back at Makila, and his eyes sparkled with mischief. "How so?"

She seemed so intensely present, just then. He could not get enough of gazing into her eyes--And then reality dissolved, and Kellian realized he was lying next to Makila in bed. He shifted slightly and brushed his lips against the back of her neck.

Somehow, he knew she was awake. "Good morning, beautiful. I just dreamed we were playing kal-toh."

"Were we betting?" she teased him, as she leaned back into the pillows and him. That warmed her in a way she hadn't been expecting and she sighed happily.

Kellian paused, trying to remember. "I'm not sure. I think we might have been? But I don't remember what we were betting."

"What would you have bet on the outcome of the next game, if you were still dreaming?" She challenged him, a gentle smile on her lips. "Where were we at in the game?"

"It was the end of the game, and I was trying to decide where to place my last piece. Then we both placed our last pieces simultaneously--but I woke up before I could see if it worked or if we wound up with a pile of loose pieces." Kellian rolled his eyes. "Just like a dream; you always wake up before the darned thing resolves." He gave her a mischievous look. "As for what stakes I would have bet? Mm....I'm not sure." Kellian thought. "Compose and perform a string quartet for you? Be at your complete mercy for a day? Volunteer at the clinic?"

"Any of those could be fun" she countered, pondering what it would be like to have him at her complete mercy. Her cheeks warmed and she flicked her gaze away from his face. "Would you compose for me?" Her voice took on a tone of muted excitement. What would he compose for her given the chance?

Kellian smiled. "I would--yes, absolutely, yes!" He leaned his head to one side. "I'm not sure where I would start. I feel so many things when I'm with you." He let out a contented breath. "I'd do that, no matter what."

"I'd like to hear what the music does in your heart when we are together.". Makila brushed a kiss to his cheek. A sweet little tune that she'd heard when passing the creche of children in the main sickbay formed on her lips before she was even aware that it was emerging from her mind. They'd been playing a song from an ancient animated film, that featured a boy with a black dragon.

"That is beautiful," Kellian said. He thought for a moment and then nodded. "I don't think you could stop me from wanting to compose something for you. But for now..." He sighed, a bit glumly. "I guess it's time to get up."

"It's quite early yet." she murmured her hand on the center of his chest keeping him from actually rising from bed. Her body shifted just enough to align with his, along his left side. Wild black curls escaped the plait she'd put into her hair and tickled her face and his arm where she rested her head. "We can stay for a while...if you want"

Kellian laughed and draped an arm over Makila's back. "As if I wouldn't want!" He teased his fingers into the curls of Makila's hair and kissed her. "Staying in bed for a while longer is definitely an appealing idea."

Tasting his kiss and the emotions behind it were a heady and intoxicating thing for Makila, and she wished for the millionth time that she could share her soul with Kellian the same way he did with her, albeit unknowingly. She'd have to do some research on the subject, quietly. Makila didn't want to get ahead of herself, but this man she would not give up willingly now that she had him. Nor did she suspect that she'd ever be sated, with the feelings she drank from his lips. Pushing herself up onto her elbow, she looked at him with eyes twinkling with desire and mischief. "Shall we entertain ourselves in the....traditional manner?" Then without leaving him time nor ability to reply to her, she kissed him...leaving no doubt as to her intent. It would be some time before either of them were conscious of anything but the other.

 

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