Some Marvellously Uncensored Text

“Hi!” Camryn panted, steadying herself with a hand on the door frame. “Thank fuck you’re here. Oh -” She had glanced up after taking a few deep breaths, replenishing her lungs following sprinting through what felt like the entire length of the space station to get from her quarters to Geoffrey’s – and only now noticed that he was top-naked, looking down at her with curiosity.

“Hello. Are you ill? Shall I call a medic?”

“Huh? No, I’m fine. I just ran here really, really fast. I tried your comms but you weren’t picking up.” She paused to gulp down a few more lungfuls and then tentatively let go of the doorframe, roaming her eyes up along his bare torso until she got to his face, where she was sure she saw a brief smug smirk cross his features. “Sorry if I interrupted anything.”

“Just a shower. What’s the matter?”

Just a shower, her mind reeled at the notion. She noticed now that he had a towel in one hand and, failing to stop her eyes from drifting down over his naked chest again, saw the droplets of water clinging to him, a couple of them tracing rivulets down over the creamy yellow scales to the darker orange-red at his stomach, and lower, to coalesce and diffuse into the fabric at his hips. Her cheeks flushed.

“Uh... Sorry. It’s Brat, I think he’s hatching. The cocoon started cracking.”

“Oh!” Geoffrey spun on his heels and retreated into his quarters, leaving the door open. Cam gingerly stepped just over the threshold, enough for the door to close behind her, and waited while he busied himself in a room out of view. When he emerged again he was fully clothed, much to Cam’s simultaneous relief and disappointment.

“I don’t think I have it in me to run all the way back.” She watched Geoffrey stuffing some recording equipment into a satchel. “But I can give you my keycard if you want to sprint ahead, and I’ll catch up when I’ve got my breath back.”

“No need.” Geoffrey slung the pack on his shoulder then guided her with him out into the corridor. “Hop onto my back.”

Cam perked a brow. “Are you serious?”

“I can carry you and sprint.” Geoffrey assured her. “My family may have constantly berated me for my lack of strength, but what little I do have will easily extend to carrying such a slight thing as you.”

“You sure know how to charm a gal.” Cam was short, but she was by no means slim; a few years of wrestling with the station’s rickety ships and hauling around the necessary maintenance machinery and heavy hull panels had given her a fair bit of bulk; ‘guns for days’, as Vi would often joke. “Go on, then.”

Geoffrey dropped to one knee and gestured to his back; Cam climbed on and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he stood and then sprinted for the elevator. He’d been right – he was handling her weight as if it was nothing, his powerful reptilian legs pumping them quickly along the corridors to the elevator. She barely had time to savour being so close to him when she had to disembark.

“And you say you’re weak for a Clakovian?” She gawked at him as they waited impatiently for the elevator to move.

“Quite so.” Geoffrey smiled a little. “A ‘skinny little runt’, as my mother would often call me.”

Cam frowned. “Well, fuck her. Oh, shit – I’m sorry, was that super offensive?”

Geoffrey’s smile widened briefly. “No, I rather share the sentiment.”

“So other clakovians are bigger?”

“By far. Taller, wider, more muscular. Wider shoulders.” He held out his arms. “”Ripped’, in the common parlance, I believe.”

The elevator lurched into movement and began its silent passage through the station.

“Well, I think you look fit as hell exactly as you are.” Camryn’s eyes widened and she slapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she mumbled through her fingers; “that was supposed to be an inside thought...”

The tip of Geoffrey’s tail flicked energetically from side to side, the bristles on the back of his neck rustled, and his claws dug so hard into the elevator floor that they left dents in the metal. He sighed, looking down, still smiling a little.

“Well, since my thoughts appear to be constantly broadcasting when I’m around you whether I like it or not, it’s only fair you share your inner monologue with me on occasion, I’d say...”

“Hah!” Cam guffawed. “Careful what you wish for. My inner monologue is usually not fit for public consumption, especially when I’m around you.”

“Is that so?” Geoffrey regarded her with that same smug little smirk he’d had when she was failing not to objectify him when he was half-naked in his doorway.

Saving her from spurting any more incriminating tidbits about what went on inside her head regarding Geoffrey, the elevator came to a quick stop and the doors hissed open. Wasting no time, Geoffrey took the knee again, Cam climbed on board, and they were off, sprinting through the passages much to the horror of any oncoming foot traffic, until they got to her door.

Camryn slid from his back and quickly swiped her keycard. They bundled through the open door and made a beeline for the corner ceiling that Brat had chosen as his temporary home, but the cocoon was empty, a gaping hole in its side, and Brat nowhere to be seen.

Cam sighed dejectedly, but Geoffrey was already pulling little scanner devices from his pack and pointing them at the empty shell.

“Sorry.” Cam slumped onto her sofa. “I didn’t think it would be so quick.”

“Not at all.” Geoffrey swapped one beeping device for another and continued taking readings. “This is fascinating. The shell is some kind of silicate composite with traces of some unknown element.”

“Unknown? As in... unknown?”

Geoffrey glanced at her, his eyes sparkling, and she felt a little surge of warmth for him.

“Indeed. At least, unknown to this equipment, and I updated the software and firmware three days ago. I suppose it could be an equipment error, but everything else seems to be functioning correctly. I’ll check the bug reports when I’m back just in case, but I’m more inclined to believe that this is something...” He paused, checked the readings one more time, and then slid the device back into his satchel, turning to give her his full attention. “Never before seen.”

“Huh.” Cam leaned back on the sofa, and Geoffrey joined her, perching on the edge and leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

“I’ll send the data for analysis to the device manufacturers tomorrow, unless you’d rather I didn’t?” He asked her.

“No, it’s fine. Actually – send it to V first and she’ll strip identifiers from it then ping it through the planetary system relays so that it’s harder to trace back.”

“Good call.” Geoffrey nodded, interlacing his fingers and then pulling them apart again, like a nervous tick.

“What are the odds,” Cam leaned forwards so that their arms were almost touching, “that we’re a station chucking junk into a wormhole that we know fuck all about, and in the same week that the wormhole apparently spits a freaking intergalactic sausage recipe from beyond the void at me, an unknown creature turns up on the station and it’s assumed it hitched a ride on someone’s ship unnoticed, but what if it didn’t?”

“Slim.” Geoffrey said after a moment’s silence. Whenever he un-clasped his fingers, the fabric of his shirt sleeve would brush against hers and make her arm tingle.

“And the creature made a weird freaky eldritch goddamned city in its fish tank that makes my head spin whenever I look at it.” Cam continued, and shifted her arm slightly outwards, so that their elbows were touching.

“And ensconced itself upon your ceiling in a cocoon made partly from a material that seems to be unknown in our corner of the universe.” Geoffrey stopped clasping and un-clasping his fingers, his hand drifting towards hers.

“And we just... lost it...” The backs of their hands touched, their fingers slotting into each others’ and shifting so that their fingertips pressed together. They sat there quietly, staring at their own hands, digesting both the weight of this potentially monumental fuck-up and the apprehensively exciting advancement of their relationship, until Cam’s door buzzer cut jarringly through the silence.

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