Confessions and Consolations (Backpost)

Posted on Tue Aug 11th, 2026 @ 3:35am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

1,493 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Valentine's Day
Location: Tessa's Quarters
Timeline: February 15th (Before Heartbreak Hotel)

Henry woke up and stretched languidly. Tessa's bed was, he admitted, becoming more comfortable than his own, in no small part to it's having been thoroughly broken in. He felt the warmth of her body pressed against him, her head on his shoulder, her arm across his chest and her leg hooked over his, and again marveled at how blissful it was to lie like that. He hated to end it.

"Are you going to keep pretending you're asleep?" he finally said, looking down at her.

"As long as you'll let me." Her eyes remained closed even while her lips moved, then blinked open and her nose scrunched up in disappointment, "How did you know?"

"I know how you breathe when you're asleep and when you're awake," he said, grinning. "There's a difference." He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I'm going to have to learn how I breathe when I'm sleeping so I can trick you in the future." She leaned up and kissed him lightly, "I'll get it one of these days."

Henry smiled and kissed her back. "I'll have to spend a night waking you up so you can hear it," he teased. He nestled down a bit and wrapped his arms around her, watch her eyes blink open and kissing the tip of her nose. "So we know how the night went, how was your evening with The Valliant Master Valleroy?

"It was fun!" Her eyes lit brightly as she remembered how they'd met that previous afternoon, "We went to an Amusing Park - or something like that - And they had these rides that were on on these rails and they went SO fast! The wind was blowing through my hair and then we got wet on another ride where we were inside this hollow-fake-tree thing and the food was SO amazing! We had this thing called a beaver tail, but don't worry, no animals were harmed in the making of it, it was a fried dough, something like a fried pancake or something of the like, and Bey's Ass, cotton candy! It was red-flavored and just absolutely melted in my mouth! The hamburgers and corn dogs were just amazing as well, have you ever tried mustard on corn dogs, it's just awesome! And then we played some games there, he said that in the real Amusing Parks back on Earth, you could even win prizes and if we could have, I would have won SO MANY of them because I've got great aim and you know that, then we went and had some milkshakes, I had two, a strawberry one and a chocolate one and I would have had a third, a combination, but then..." The final memory of the holodeck adventure with Corey came back and she seemed to draw in on herself as her smile faded, "Henry? Something...happened yesterday with Corey."

Henry's playful smile immediately dropped. Alarm bells of all kind went off in his head about what Corey might've done from accidental and innocent to he was about to smack a grade schooler. He put a hand on Tessa's cheek and tilted her head back up to look at him. "Just tell me what happened, Angel," he said.

"I think.. I think I may have broken my promise to you to stay loyal to just you." She looked up at him pleadingly, "Corey says that this was a date." Tessa paused for a heartbeat, "It was an accident, I swear! I didn't MEAN to go out on a date with him, and, and when I found out that's what it was, I cut it off right then and there!"

Henry blinked. "Did...did you really not know that was going to be a date?" he said.

“Why would there be a date?” The distress was still evident in her eyes, but suspicion had begun to leak into things. “And what do you mean? You knew it was a date?”

"Tessa," Henry said, "in a far away star system in the Beta Quadrant, there is a planet that has been almost completely hollowed out by rivers into a system of underground tunnels and caves. These caves contain a species of fish that live in total darkness, going their entire lives without seeing the light of their sun or the tasting the air of their planet. They've evolved over millions of years to live without the use of eyes, ears or any other sensory organs outside their ability to sense the water around them. They knew."

“Uh!” Tessa squeaked in a high-pitched voice of indignation, pushing off from him and using both hands to strike at him. She wouldn’t be able to get much behind them, but inferring she was. “I’m not an idiot, you know!”

Henry fended off her hands for a moment before grabbing her wrists and holding them at bay until she calmed down, giving her a gentle smile. "I know you aren't, Angel, but neither am I. I knew the moment he started talking to you and pretending I didn't exist. I knew the look on his face when he saw you. You might recall a similar expression on my face when I look at you”

“I thought he was just enamored with me and the fact that I’m a Baroness!” Tessa objected, “Most people back at home are like that, when Mother and I went out of the castle!”

"Enamored? Yes. Because of your title? No." He let her go and pulled her back into a hug, holding her tight. "No promises broken, no feelings betrayed. I love you, now more than ever, and I'm okay if you're okay."

She didn’t know how to feel, this was new to her and part of her was flattered, but she also felt horrible. Had she done something wrong, despite Henry’s words? “I’m okay.” She said, burning her face into him to hide her embarrassment.

"Then we're okay," Henry said, kissing her head. "I know you didn't go into this with ill intent, and that matters more than anything. But, maybe now, you understand a bit better why I was upset about this in the first place, hm?" he said, quietly. He gave her a squeeze. "But I promise, we're okay. Although, I should ask, is Corey okay?"

"I don't know." Tessa admitted, "I mean, he had his arm around me and that's when he was mentioning that he had other ideas for dates and then I told him about you and..." Her voice went soft, "Then he ran away. I tried to stop him, so I could explain, but he didn't... Did I do wrong?"

Henry sighed and held her tight. "No, I did," he said. "I shouldn't have just walked away, I should have put him in his place that night. I should've explained to you what he was doing, and I should've made sure there was no misunderstanding. I was too busy sulking and being upset over nothing." He sighed again and rubbed her back. "Poor kid, I feel for him. I know what he's going through."

"A handsome guy like you?" She shook her head, "I got lucky that you were free when we met, no doubt someone would have snapped you up if I hadn't." She snuggled deeper into his arms, "Really, really lucky."

"Well, you remember I told you about my previous girlfriend," Henry said. And before Ashleigh, I'd been turned down plenty of times. It's just...something males all go through, and we all learn to accept it. This is his moment of learning, and hopefully he'll come out a bit stronger from it, and the next time he meets a girl, he'll ask if she's seeing anyone first."

"I just hope he doesn't hate me." Tessa admitted, "He's the only one that's remotely near my age on board that I know of, and I know you aren't that much older than me." She forestalled his comment, "But I need more friends than you and Kally and Rala, and all of them are a lot older than me. Okay, yes, I'm used to that and I can do it, but.. You know."

Henry nodded. He wanted her to have a friend circle other than him, and he was glad she had Kally and the others, but he understood the issue of people one's own age. Even he was younger than some of the others and he felt it sometimes. "I doubt he hates you," he said. "He's just embarrassed. He was vulnerable, and he got his pride stung. He'll recover, I promise."

"I know, just like I'll get over feeling bad about this, too." Tessa agreed, "We're going to need to go over to Lord Valleroy's quarters and get this all settled out. Explain to him what happened, that it was all just an accident."

Henry nodded. "In a bit," he said, rolling Tessa onto her back and kissing her.

 

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