Water They Waiting For? (backpost)
Posted on Sat Aug 15th, 2026 @ 4:06am by Lieutenant Rala & Lieutenant Kally Kellerman
Edited on on Sat Aug 15th, 2026 @ 10:59am
6,113 words; about a 31 minute read
Mission:
The Next Interim
Location: Deck 7, Kally's quarters
Timeline: A few days after "Why is Paperwork Everything So Stressful?"
Tags: Rala, Kally, Intimacy
Water They Waiting For?
Kally was sprawled out on her couch, book in hand, in a simple t-shirt and shorts, comfy as could be. It was a rare night when everyone was busy. Cally had the early shift the next day instead of Espersen, so she had to turn in early. Katie and Jadizon were on a date night, and even Peter and Izzy were working later shifts than usual as favors to others. She had been giving Fulvia and T’Vel some time to each other, but she was contemplating dropping in on Sakura and Bradley again when her door chime sounded.
“Enter!” she said.
The door opened to reveal Rala, carrying an engineering toolkit in one hand and a smile appearing on her face as she stepped inside. “Shower technician,” she called as the door closed behind her.
“Ofiget'!” Kally said, swinging her legs around and jumping to her feet, grinning. “Need help? I have ten thumbs ready to go!”
Rala grinned and immediately went over to give her friend a hug. “I can probably manage on my own, but having someone to hold or hand me things might make it go a little faster.”
Kally returned the hug eagerly and bounced on her toes. “I can do that!” she said. “Right this way!” She led the way to the head and the previously unused door.
Rala followed Kally to the bathroom, whereupon she set the toolkit down on the sink and looked around, then produced a tricorder and started scanning the dead shower alcove. It wasn’t long before a sigh escaped her snout. “Yep. Looks like they tried the same thing here as they did with mine, although apparently they weren’t particularly bothered about being consistent in how they chose to ‘decommission’ it. Hold this, please.” She closed the tricorder and handed it to Kally, then pressed the claws of three hands into the seams at the edge of one wall panel just outside the alcove. She tapped on the panel with the fourth hand once, tapped again in a different spot, then with a bit more force in a third spot and her claws slipped into the gap enough that she was able to pull the panel off. Behind it were two cable conduits running to the former guts of a small LCARS panel, now missing the interface screen itself along with roughly half the components that should have been behind it.
Kally watched with interest as she held the tricorder. It had been some time since she’d merely assisted with surgery, and she knew to keep a close watch, even if she didn’t have to count swabs. “Looks a bit muddled in there,” she said. “Is that supposed to be that convoluted?”
Rala held out a hand and wobbled it back and forth. “A ship is more like a living body than a lot of people think,” she said. “People have blood and nerves; ships have electrically energized plasma and optical data networks. It’s not a perfect analogy, but both of those systems go basically everywhere, and then there’s a bunch of ancillary systems that one may have to tend with in any given spot. That said,” she gestured at the open section of wall, “there’s supposed to be a touch panel here to control the shower.”
She gave a small sigh, shaking her head. “Thankfully, LCARS panels are easy to replicate. But that’s only part of the problem. Hand me the plasma cutter from the toolbox, please? Looks like an oversized laser scalpel...because that’s basically what it is.” As Kally turned to retrieve the requested tool, Rala continued, “Essentially, someone wanted a forcefield that would stop water but not people...when most people are mostly water. The result is...unstable. And unstable forcefields are dangerous. Why they decided to break things when it didn’t work out, instead of just...doing anything else, is beyond me.”
“Probably cannibalized the parts for something else,” Kally said, slapping the tool into Rala’s palm smartly. “Sorry,” she said as she heard how hard the slap was. “Medical training.”
Rala transferred the cutter to another hand and gave Kally a glance. The first palm stung slightly, but she let it fade on its own. “Maybe some,” she said as she began making a clean cut of the ODN conduit leading into the remains of the LCARS panel’s guts, “but this looks like things were literally just ripped out.”
“Clearly our previous batch of engineers had rage issues,” Kally said, shrugging. “Good thing we have such level-headed crew members these days, hm?” She snickered.
“Indeed,” Rala said, moving to cut the second ODN conduit on the other side of the ruined panel. “Fortunately, most of these things are fairly simple to replace; just...tedious.”
Kally nodded. “Medicine is like that. Surgery is tense, but even then it’s a bunch of little tedious motions that add up to something big. However, for the most part, it’s banal scans, dermal regeneration and hypospray injections. Katie would say “boring is the goal. If the ship doesn’t blow up today I know I did my job.”
A minute or so later, Rala had the remains of the panel removed. “Okay, step one complete,” she said, handing the removed piece to Kally. “Take this to the replicator and recycle it, please. We’ll need to replicate replacements, but I’d rather know everything we’ll need before we start replicating things. I’ll get started on stripping the rest of the unneeded parts.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Kally said, snapping a salute, she went and recycled the part in her replicator, then came back and hopped up on her sink, sitting and watching Rala work and occasionally handing her a tool or holding something in place for her.
Rala pressed the final wall panel into place and ran a tool over the seam to ensure water couldn’t seep through it, then stepped back next to Kally. “There we go, all done. And only a bit over half an hour; not bad.” She turned to her friend and gestured at the new control panel on the wall. “Your quarters, your shower. Care to do the honors?”
“Absolutely!” Kally said, excitedly. She activated the hot water jets and immediately threw off her clothes. “C’mon get moving!” she said, looking at Rala.
Rala smiled, then tilted her head slightly in thought for a second. “Stars, the last time I got invited to bathe with a friend was...twelve years ago?” She looked back to Kally, still smiling. “It means a lot.”
“You did the work, you deserve some reward,” Kally said. “C’mon!”
Rala arched an eyebrow. “Really that eager to get me naked again, hmm?” she teased, reaching up to unzip her uniform.
Kally stuck her tongue out, but didn’t deny. “Says the one who can’t quite find my eyes,” she teased. She watched Rala struggle with the seam release and snickered in sympathy. “Your uniform doesn’t seem to want to play ball,” she said.
Rala glanced at Kally, then back down at her uniform. The zipper on her uniform top had indeed jammed just below her clavicle. “Probably got messed up when I was digging back in the wall earlier.” She gave it another yank, and the tiny handle broke off in her fingers. She sighed, holding up the broken piece between herself and Kally, looking at it for a second with an expression that started as frustration, shifted into acceptance, and then, as her eyes shifted directly to Kally’s and held them, into determination with a touch of defiance.
Still holding Kally’s gaze, she set the broken piece on the edge of the sink with one hand, then brought all four hands up, and dug her short, nearly straight claws into the fabric of her uniform top. “It’s a good thing these are easily replicated,” she quipped, and then simply tore it from her chest.
Kally snickered. “True,” she said. “I’d have cut you out of it if you’d wanted. I’ve got some experience there.” She grinned and gave Rala a friendly whistle. “Love the new bra, by the way,” she said.
The bra in question let form follow function a bit more closely; still very clearly made to keep things in place, but with a bit of decorative trim and seams placed to accentuate ever so slightly.
Kally gave Rala’s rump a friendly slap. “Now, hurry up! The water’s not getting any wetter!” She slipped into the shower and let out a deep sigh of joy. “And it feels wonderful.”
Rala’s tail twitched as if it were about to lash out at something, then stilled as she stripped out of the remains of her uniform, kicking it out the bathroom door. The bra and a matching pair of panties joined it a few seconds later.
Rala slipped into the shower behind Kally and turned her face up to the overhead water jets much as she had in her own shower, basking in the warm water. “Monster,” she said after several seconds.
“I beg your pardon?” Kally said.
“Whoever left these showers broken, I mean,” Rala clarified. “It’s just cruel, making us do without these for so long.”
“Ah, then I agree,” Kally said. She paused and looked at Rala. “I probably should’ve replicated some kind of soap, hm?” she said. “Be right back.” She hopped out and quickly dried herself, rushing to the replicator.
Rala watched her go, then turned her back to the entrance and leaned against the back wall of the shower with her upper pair of arms. She reached up between them with the lower pair, running the hands across her face in the water, then down her neck, across her chest and belly. Her thoughts, as they often did in her own shower, began to wander; in this case, they landed on how drastically the path of her life had changed—and, she thought, even though there was a touch of homesickness that her Tikkana tree holoprogram couldn’t completely satisfy, had changed significantly for the better—a decade prior when that disabled Starfleet vessel had drifted close enough to Draakrona to finally detect them.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Kally’s return, and she moved closer to the wall to make room, looking over her shoulder as her friend stepped back into the shower. “Mission accomplished?”
“Yup,” Kally said, handing her a loofah and giving her a dollop of cleanser, the shower suddenly taking on a light lavender scent, then doing the same for herself. “You had a look on your face,” she said. “What’s on your mind?”
“Hm?” Rala queried, taking the loofah and soap. “Oh. Just...worldlines, I suppose,” she said absently, turning back around and gesturing at her back. “Would you mind? I’ll take care of you after.”
“If I had a strip of latinum…” Kally said, grinning, then began scrubbing Rala’s back. “So, what’s a ‘worldline’?”
“A worldline is an object’s path through both time and space—or, a person’s, as the case may be,” Rala said, scrubbing her arms. Thin flakes of keratin came up as she did; the miniscule purple scales that covered most of her body were shedding their outer layers; she’d neglected proper exfoliation for too long. “I was thinking about how different mine would have been if that federation ship hadn’t accidentally found Draakrona.” She shifted her tail slightly so it was resting against Kally’s ankle. “And how much better I think it is because they did.”
“My father used to say, ‘Hasi, jeder befindet sich genau dort im Leben, wo er sein möchte.’ Basically, ‘we’re all where we want to be in our lives.’ We make choices, we wind up places. You did get lucky with that accidental find, but you chose to put yourself out there and join Starfleet with no backup, so to speak. That took more than a little courage.”
“You say that, but it wasn’t even a question for me,” Rala replied. “I’d already been planning—well, hoping—to go into space eventually, and trying to work toward that goal, even if it had only been with our comparatively limited abilities at the time. The questions ‘What’s out there?’ and ‘What’s it like out there?’ have been rather prominent in my mind for almost as long as I can remember. First Contact showed me the course I wanted to take very clearly, even if I couldn't see exactly where it would lead. I had to get through some rough seas to get here, but I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than here, on this ship, with these people.”
Kally smiled. “I know how you feel,” she said. “I never really intended to wind up here, but what everyone thought was one horrible decision turned out to be the best one ever.” She gave Rala’s tail a quick scrub and rinsed her loofah thoroughly. “I should sleep with ambassadors more often,” she quipped.
Rala let that image play in her mind for slightly longer than she meant to before shooing it away. “I don’t know,” she said, “doing that again might take you away from here, and I can think of several people who would be upset if that happened.” She turned partway around to look at Kally directly, giving her a simple smile. “I’m one of them.”
Kally had the decency to blush as she turned her back to Rala to switch jobs. “Yeah,” she sighed, “things here are far more complicated than they were on the Intrepid,” she said, washing herself idly as she thought back on things. “Being an Ensign was a lot easier, and a lot of fun, but not as fulfilling.”
“From simple and, at least relatively, fun to at least more complicated does seem to be the way things go,” Rala said, re-soaping the loofah and starting on Kally’s back. “Fulfilling is certainly the desired outcome, but it’s less certain...although Starfleet seems to have a fairly good record on that count, even for edge cases like us. I had a decent time at the Academy, and on the Thunderchild—at least when I wasn’t having to deal with that skekzhap Johnson.” She finished scrubbing Kally’s back and stepped around one side until she was in Kally’s peripheral vision, catching her eye. “You’re cute when you blush, you know,” she said genuinely, then crouched down to scrub one of Kally’s legs.
“Doesn’t happen often, given I’m supposed to be the ‘shameless’ one,” Kally said, watching Rala. She quickly and efficiently finished washing her hair and as Rala stood, rinsed off quickly. She shut off the water and turned to face Rala, folding her arms over her chest. “So, are we going to talk about it?”
Rala tilted her head to one side, ears angling in different directions. “Talk about what?”
“The shameless flirting,” Kally said, the corner of her mouth twitching up.
Rala’s brow furrowed. “Flirting? I wasn’t...” She paused, thinking over what she’d said, her tone and expression as she'd spoken, and was starting to consider the possibility of a translator glitch when Kally interrupted her train of thought.
“Oh yes you were,” Kally teased. “And this isn’t the first time, either. I’ve let it slide, because I know you weren’t the most open person about this stuff, but you keep doing it, and you seem far more comfortable about it now. So, I’m curious where it’s coming from, and where you expect it to go.” She put her hands on her hips and held Rala’s gaze.
Rala leaned back against the shower wall, crossing all four of her own arms, which did interesting things to her chest. She tilted her head, ears angling in different directions as she considered how to respond. “It’s...” she started, paused, then asked, “Do you want the long version or the short version?”
“Let’s compromise with the medium version while we dry off and get warm,” Kally said. She stepped past Rala and out of the shower, grabbing towels and tossing one to Rala. “So, spill it.”
Rala caught the towel and started drying herself off. “Maybe I was flirting,” she began, calmly conversational and slightly muffled from the towel hanging over her head, “but I wasn’t really thinking of it like that.” The towel shifted to her horns and then her neck and the rest of her hair. “You’re right, I haven’t been as open as I probably should be—about several things, especially...” her first right hand gestured between herself and Kally.
“And if I recall our last heart-to-heart,” Kally said, her voice somewhat stern, as she dried herself off, “you were to not hold pressing things in.” She had an idea what was on Rala’s mind, but she wasn’t going to prod…yet. “So just talk to me.”
Rala opened her mouth to start explaining, then paused. “Hold that thought,” she said. She finished drying as quickly as she could, then stepped out of the bathroom and over to the replicator, replicating a knee-length bathrobe.
Kally followed her out, grabbing a tshirt on the way and throwing it on, then sat down on her couch, crossing her legs. She was close to accusing Rala of stalling, but held her tongue a bit longer.
Rala loosely tied the belt on her bathrobe and settled down on Kally’s sofa, pulling her legs up beside her and coiling her tail around herself. “Being closed off isn’t new for me,” she began; “I’ve always been terrified of expressing myself without inhibition, of what people would think of me if I did, of being misunderstood. Even on Draakrona, I felt like an alien sometimes, getting uncomfortable looks as often as the response I expected, or wanted.” Her tailtip flicked and a wry smile touched her face. “It’s probably part of the reason I left; at least out here, misunderstandings make sense.”
Rala’s eyes closed for a moment as she continued. “And then, I come here, where most of the people I’ve gotten to know are, as best I can tell, polar opposites of that.” Her ears perked up very slightly and her eyes opened, once again looking at Kally. “Including you; maybe especially you. You’ve made me want to drop some of those inhibitions, and I have, here and there.”
Her eyes flicked up to Kally’s again. “You’re still one of the first people I think of when I want company, because you’re an amazing person, a wonderful friend, and I feel more free to be me when you’re around.”
Kally blushed again. She knew a crush when she saw one, but wasn’t sure how to address it.
Rala ran a hand through her hair before continuing. “So this is coming from my heart, and I’m just hoping, praying, that it’s not being taken the wrong way. You, Katie, and Calypso are the best friends I’ve ever had, Kally.” Her tailtip flicked again. Her ears rose a little more and a smile touched her face. “That night we spent watching movies, chatting, eating popcorn and getting drunk, and ultimately falling asleep leaning against each other? That was the best night of my life.”
She took a second to gather the rest of her thoughts. “Then there’s the other aspect to all of this,” Rala said. “I find you attractive in many ways, including physically. Your general openness about...” she made a small, mildly frustrated gesture,“...almost everything, is...it reminds me of some of the people back on Draakrona who I looked up to the most. The combination of both exotic and familiar is...” her tail flicked again, “enticing. And your experience with the physical realities of other species, both as a medical professional and in your personal intimate life—assuming you weren’t exaggerating overmuch when you said ‘a dozen’ before—is comforting, in a number of ways.”
She ran a hand through her hair again, then scratched under the base of one horn. “I said I’ve been gradually shaking off my inhibitions about several things; well, that offer you made after the party...” She took another steadying breath. “...sex is one aspect where it’s been more difficult for me to lose those inhibitions, and that offer ran headlong into them.”
She looked at Kally more directly. “I said I’d never been with someone from another species. That’s technically true, but it’s incomplete. I’ve never been with anyone else. I’ve done some solo stuff, but I’ve always been too shy to ask, and no one ever asked me...until you. She paused, hauling up her courage. “Truth is? For a combination of reasons...I’m hoping you’ll be my first.”
Kally blinked in surprise. “Do you mean…now?”
Now it was Rala’s turn to blush, blinking as her ears perked forward. “I, uh...” she said, then stopped, forcing herself to think for a second or two. “I mean, I wasn’t thinking about ‘right now’ before, but...” She glanced down at the simple t-shirt Kally had put on, then looked back up to her face. “...hell with it. What was the line from Intro to Temporal Mechanics at the Academy? ‘There’s no time like the present’?” A heartbeat later she added, “If you’re willing, of course.”
Kally licked her lips and instinctively looked Rala up and down. She couldn’t suddenly claim to be shy, but she had some reservations. “Rala,” she said, “there are multiple reasons I sleep with people. Sometimes it’s just for fun, sometimes it’s to get to know them, and sometimes it’s to cut the tension and get it out of their system.” She sighed. “That last one is tricky, because sleeping with someone who has a genuine crush can really hurt them in the long run. It’s already happened to me once here, and forgive me, but you’re the sensitive type, and…your feelings are somewhat obvious. Don’t misunderstand, I’m flattered and I’m touched, and I adore you, but I’m worried that this will hurt you emotionally in the long run.” She moved closer and put a hand on Rala’s. “I want your first time to be fun, special, and a good memory. I don’t want it tainted by any potential hurt feelings.”
Rala’s head tilted to one side as Kally spoke, and her hand turned over to gently grasp her friend’s as soon as she felt her touch. She considered Kally’s words for a second, then smiled at her. “Your concern is just making me even more sure I was right,” she said. “Yes, I’ve got feelings for you. Stars, I even used the word ‘crush’ when it came up while I was talking to Fulvia, even though I’m still trying to figure out—” she stopped herself, shaking her head. “I’m rambling.” She dragged her gaze back to Kally’s, putting another hand on top of her friend’s. “Here’s what I do know: As long as we’re still friends at the end of the day, I’ll be okay, I promise.”
“Our friendship is not in question,” Kally said. “But can you be friends with me, knowing there is a level of feeling I may not reciprocate the same way? Can you open yourself up, be that intimate with someone and be okay with them just being on that level, and not more?”
Rala hesitated for the span of a slow breath, her heart thudding in her chest. She looked Kally up and down, ensuring to herself that she was seeing the woman in front of her as she truly was, rather than any imagined version she might have concocted in her mind. As she reached her conclusion, her heart thudded again, accompanied by a brief pain between her horns which quickly faded and the faintest hint of a tingling sensation where her hands touched Kally’s. “If I weren’t sure,” she said, mustering up all of the bravado she could find, even if it mostly felt false, and giving Kally a smile as her free hands started untying the belt on her bathrobe, “I wouldn’t be doing this.”
She released Kally’s hand from the two of her own, which then abruptly reached out to pull the doctor against her. She bent her head to the side of Kally’s neck, nudging her blonde hair out of the way and giving her the gentlest nip with her teeth just below the ear as she exhaled, before breathing deeply of her scent. Then, with no more warning than she’d given with the previous move, she pulled back slightly, finding Kally's mouth with her own and giving her the longest, deepest kiss she’d ever given anyone, the claws on one of her free hands poking tiny holes in the sofa even as the other free hand slipped under the hem of Kally’s t-shirt and began sliding slowly upward.
Kally squeaked in surprise at the love bite, but quickly reverted to form, returning the kiss with equal passion. “Touché,” she said as they broke apart.
Rala’s hand brushed something very warm and very soft as she helped Kally doff the t-shirt. “One quick question,” she said as she finished undoing the belt and shrugged out of her own bathrobe.
“Ask away,” Kally said, smiling.
Rala reached out to—deliberately this time—touch the same warm, soft object again, simultaneously pulling Kally in for another kiss. “How long has it been since you brushed up on Draakri reproductive anatomy?”
Kally kissed her and blushed a bit as she got a coy grin. “Honestly?” she said. “It’s the first thing I researched after your onboarding.” She straddled Rala’s lap and kissed her again. “You know…just in case.”
Rala was slightly surprised when Kally moved to straddle her, but quickly shifted her own position to accommodate, placing two hands on Kally’s hips and the other two on her waist while returning the kiss. “That was almost a year ago, you know,” she murmured, giving her seemingly soon-to-be first lover another nip on the opposite side of her neck.
“Yeah. I know. Took you long enough,” Kally teased.
Kally stretched and groaned a bit, her muscles a bit sore, but in a familiar good way. She’d have sat up but she was wrapped in four arms and a tail.
Rala curled more tightly around the warm, soft figure in her arms, not wanting to wake up. A small part of her was afraid that what had happened that night before she went to sleep had actually been a dream, simply the first and best of a night full of particularly good and vivid ones.
But then the figure she was wrapped around—her mate, if only for that night—stirred, and a fresh wave of her scent filled Rala’s nostrils, and that tiny mote of doubt was washed away. She relaxed the limbs that held the other woman; not removing them entirely, but making it obvious that she wasn’t restraining her.
A faint smile touched her face, and she let out a soft mumbling groan that almost resembled a greeting, giving Kally a tiny lick on the edge of one ear.
“Hey,” Kally said back, smiling. She leaned up and looked around them. Her mattress had a few tears and puncture marks. It briefly reminded her of another tryst she’d had, but more claws. “Well…that’s unfortunate,” she said.
Rala groaned again, opening one eye a tiny bit to follow Kally’s gaze and, by extension, her train of thought. “Sorry, Tzeni,” she murmured, using the nickname borrowed from Draakri mythology she’d given Kally that night. “I...didn’t know I could get that...energetic.”
Kally shrugged. “Not the first mattress of mine that’s been damaged, probably won’t be the last.”
“Better it than your back...again,” Rala said, brushing a hand over the small of Kally’s back where a series of small puncture wounds had briefly been. “Good thing you keep a medkit handy. And I suppose it’s only fair I help you replace the mattress, after you gave me such an amazing night,” Rala said, pulling Kally back down into a kiss.
Kally gave her a kiss and a warm hug. “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she said. She pulled back and sat up. “And…we’re good? Friendship solid?”
Rala rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling, a contented smile on her face. She nodded and opened her mouth as if to speak, then paused, glancing at Kally and focusing her thoughts again, much as she had the night before. She realized that while, yes, she had engaged in a bit of fantasy about what a life with Kally might be like, what she truly wanted was essentially what they already had: friendship, like none she’d known, worth more than all the treasure on Draakrona; and now this: the gift, from that same friend, of making her first encounter of such intimacy with another person so wonderful.
And she remembered what Kally had asked her before, about her feelings, and how there was a level of feeling Kally might not reciprocate. She carefully reviewed what she knew of Kally and her relationships—both intimate and otherwise—with others; then went back and examined her own prior feelings once more. She compared them, found the difference Kally was almost certainly referring to—much smaller than she thought it would be—and decided that yes, setting it aside would be not just acceptable, but trivial.
Those thoughts flashed through Rala’s mind in the span of one slow breath, her gaze flicking around at nothing and the smile on her muzzle alternately growing and shrinking slightly as she thought, but never disappearing entirely. It grew wider again as she refocused on Kally. “Yes,” she said, unequivocally. “Better than ever, as far as I’m concerned.” She sat up beside Kally and reached a hand up to her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Exactly one thing has changed,” she said; “one of the best friends anyone could ask for just gave me a gift: The kind of absolutely magical night I’ve never experienced before.” Her smile twisted slightly into a smirk. “I certainly wouldn’t mind an encore sometime, but if and when is up to you.” She moved the hand from Kally’s shoulder to her face, caressing her cheek briefly before pulling her in for another hug. “And either way, I will cherish this forever.”
Kally patted her hand. “Well, I did have a threesome scheduled with a friend and her boyfriend,” she said. “Plus there are house calls with a few boys in security coming up,” she joked, airily.
Rala quirked an eyebrow, and then her gaze shifted in thought. Kally may have been joking, but it had prompted a genuine question in her mind: Who else would, or might, she be open to sharing an experience like this with? She could think of a few—all of whom were people she already considered friends, or at least friendly acquaintances—but not many.
Kally looked at Rala sideways and smirked. “I’m glad you had a good time. We’ll let things settle a bit and see how things go.” She put an arm around Rala and gave a squeeze.
Rala’s smile reappeared as she returned the gesture. “Sounds good,” she said, patting Kally’s thigh, then got up off the bed and stretched all over. The night’s activities had been an all new kind of fun, but there were definitely some physical repercussions. Parts of her that had never been sore before were now complaining. She glanced back at Kally. “Mind if I borrow your shower again, before I head out? I’ve got some muscles that could really use another dose of hot water.”
“Not at all,” Kally said, standing up and stretching as well.
Rala nodded, turning and heading for the bathroom with a happy little hop. She turned on the water, turning up the temperature slightly over what they’d used the night before, and stepped in, raising her face to the water and basking in it once more.
She didn’t hurry, nor did she dawdle (much); and by the time she emerged, she seemed vibrant—mostly because this time she’d properly exfoliated to remove every last bit of shedding from her scales, but also because the thinking she’d done while in there had settled her almost giddy joy from earlier into a more steady, calm happiness...although, she’d realized, she still had at least one bit of unfinished business.
She found Kally relaxing on her sofa, and sat down near her, just out of arm’s reach for either of them alone, but within their combined reach.
Kally smiled and patted the free cushion, pulling her feet up under her and turning to face Rala as she sat.
“It hit me while I was in there that we’ve been focusing entirely on how I feel about this,” Rala began, “and, while I am the one who’s new to all this and probably has the most to process in that regard, it would be wrong of me not to ask at least once: How are you feeling about this?”
Kally shrugged. “I’m all right. Like I said, so long as we are okay, and this won’t come back to bite us, I’m okay.” She rested against the back of the couch and smiled. “For now? We get adjusted to the ‘new normal’, and we see where things take us.”
“‘The new normal’, eh?” Rala echoed, smiling. “Sounds good. And we are definitely okay, as far as I’m concerned,” she finished. She hooked a thumb back toward the head. “The shower is all yours; let me know if you have any problems with it, or if you want help cleaning up the bed.” She started to stand, then settled back and snapped her fingers as a thought struck her and looked back at Kally. “Are we still on for that swimming session tomorrow? I was thinking about using our scans of that beach planet from a while back instead of the Tikkana tree; kinda feel like catching some waves.”
Kally smiled. “We absolutely are,” she said. She leaned over and pulled Rala in for a hug, which was returned eagerly, then she stood up and stretched. “All right, a shower, and then we pay the price of a good time: having to clean up everything and go back to pretending we’re responsible adults.”
Rala stood as well, giving a nod and a wry smile. “While you’re showering, I’ll recycle the sheets and replicate new ones…” she looked down at herself, and then over to the remains of her uniform top on the floor; “...along with a fresh uniform.”
“Sounds good,” it was Kally’s turn to say as the two of them separated to start cleaning up after what had turned out to be a particularly fun night.
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