Definitely Stalking

Posted on Sat Mar 12th, 2022 @ 5:31am by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Evanna Belyaev

Mission: Mirror Mirror
Location: Imperial Palace
Timeline: 2397
4995 words - 10 OF Standard Post Measure

At first, she'd only slipped out to go to the bathroom.

She'd actually fallen asleep, briefly. That had surprised her. After years of fleeting liaisons and meaningless trysts, Evanna was a very private woman when it came to her more vulnerable states. She'd never been one for languishing in bed, operating just fine on minimal hours with the added annoyance of being one of those people who could hit the ground at full pace. She also made a habit of sleeping alone for the most part, unwilling to indulge in the inevitable relaxation of her defenses whilst another shared her intimate space. But they had exhausted each other, his stamina every bit what she had anticipated with perhaps the only surprise being the undercurrent of tenderness that tempered his passion. He'd treated her with reverence, had called her some things the translator would have balked at repeating and had been very thorough in marking every inch of her geometry with the heat of hands and lips. Leaving the circle of his arms was harder than she'd anticipated, but nature had called.

And then so too had the silence of the living space and the stars beyond the window.

A replicated robe obscured very little of her, made of flimsy chiffon that felt gorgeous against the skin but erred too close to translucency to be modest. Coffee from the replicator, rich and strong, gave a concrete reason for lingering though if forced, to be honest, Evanna was just taking a moment. Breathing. Establishing equilibrium. Biding her time, in her own company, before she let herself return to him. She already craved it. That was unusual too.

The coolness of the bed had first alerted to him that she had left but more alarming to the Captain was the fact he had let her stay after the fact. He let very few women stay after and he had to admit privately there was no Terran he had ever let stay in all the years he had taken lovers. He did not need the intimacy of sleeping next to someone, he need not want anyone close.

He rolled onto his back and then sat up spotting a small number of clothes nearby. She could not be far he decided just moving to go and look for her when the communication system indicated someone was trying to contact him. Seeing who it was he did not even grab a shirt or cover more than the sheet allowed. “Fenruse.” He growled as the hologram of the woman appeared at the bottom of the bed. She did not even raise an eyebrow at the hair sticking up or the fact he was in bed when it was still early enough in the night for the man.

“You wanted a check-in at midnight.” She said having been left in charge of the ship with the second officer who was now already on the bridge.

“I did. My crew are alive then?” He asked almost wishing that Selina had done as she had threatened and put the vast majority in agoniser booths. The blonde Betazoid just grinned and shrugged innocently.

“Will have to see the reports when you return, Sir. But the ship is well. Nothing major to report.” She assured wanting to bet the point across that she had done nothing out of the ordinary.

The sound of voices was an unmistakable interruption, though Evanna hesitated as a war of impulses left her momentarily indecisive. On principle, eavesdropping wasn't against her moral code. In fact, much of her job and indeed previous employment had involved an element of communication diversion, translation and subsequent redistribution. It was the bread and butter of Imperial life, and she happened to be quite good at it. But as intrigued as she was by him in general, Belyaev lacked the required deathwish to snoop around Gregnol's communique without adequate incentive. Personal curiosity didn't count. On the other hand, ingratiating herself into the conversation clearly wasn't palatable and that was before any consideration was given to whether either of them wanted whoever-it-was to know she was there. From the living area, she could only discern the voice to be feminine and there were plenty of women who would have thrown a right royal tantrum if a naked blonde appeared behind him.

Discretion was her life force, however, and when the lithe woman decided to move, it was only towards the doorway. Framed by it, a glorious snapshot, Evanna caught the Captain's gaze, held it a moment, and then slid her hand over the panel to slide the door closed. She may have been tempted to simply dress and leave, but her clothing was in the bedroom and something about walking away didn't sit right. That ought to have been her first warning.

The ship was fine, the crew was fine, his command team had not mutinied not that he thought them stupid enough but there always the one who thought themselves better they what they had been given. Gregnol had just about the request that Selina left him to his evening if everything was well when the communication ended with Selina declaring abruptly that her guest had arrived and turning off the hologram.

He had just about made out a female voice greeting her as the blonde woman disappeared from his bedroom allowing him to lie back down. Whoever it was he wished them well as Selina was not a woman to be easily played. He only got away with playing with her because he was familiar and respected by her despite all the things he had done. “She is gone.” He finally called out.

It was a summons. Had she pressed him to come to seek her out, he likely would have but they had stretched boundaries enough for one evening and she had done a thorough job already of ridding him of any sexual impetus for tolerating disobedience. With a final glance out the window, Evanna rose from the arm of the chair she'd settled onto and moved back to open the door. Still holding the remains of her coffee, she leaned against its frame and watched him.

He'd shown her his gentle side. It seemed prudent to brace herself for imminent dismissal.

"It still appears to be in one piece," she observed quietly, head nodded backwards to indicate the window and the view of the flagship just beyond. It was the only explanation she gave for her distraction, a subtle admission to making sure their ticket out of here was still where they'd parked it. It wasn't unusual for Evanna to seek defensive confirmation for her own purposes but there was also just that glimmer of loyalty, hard to pinpoint. A consideration for contributing to his own peace of mind, even if he hadn't asked for it nor possibly even needed it.

“If Selina… Fenruse knows what is good for her she would make sure it was her highest priority to make sure my crew know that.” He said with unwavering conviction that he had no issues with that the woman used all force to make sure it happened. He was loyal to Terra and the Empire but he did not buy into the fact The Terran Empire needed to be pure in Starfleet. No ship run with just Terran Officers. Non-Terrans were just as loyal and in some cases more loyal as they only had his protection or a skill that others did not to save them from death.

"She appears to have taken her responsibility seriously."

She had retreated again, back inwards to herself; an ice sculpture encased in a glass case. It was not a callous disregard, nor an attempt to reduce the significance of their interchange. If anything, it was deference to both their preferences and a reassurance that Evanna could compartmentalise the components of her life with the same ruthless efficiency she employed when organising her workspace. Moderation. Control. Regulation. She stayed where she was, her shoulder digging into the doorframe, and regarded him with placid composure.

"Would you prefer I leave?"

She never asked usually. On the rare occasion she consented to intimacy outside spaces that she controlled herself, Evanna retained a persistent demand for emotional separation and wasn't even that concerned with sneaking out whilst the other party was asleep, more than content to simply walk out in full view. She was no more intent on lingering unnecessarily here, finding no comfort in leaving the impression that she was a lovesick child. It was just so uncommon for her to find herself willing to keep the company of a lover, for the sake of the interaction regardless of endorphin release, that Evanna found herself not unwilling to at least ask. If nothing else, it paraded as respect. This was his space, after all; his rules. To a point.

Gregnol looked the woman over and grinned at the robe that covered and did not at the same time. It was alluring, to say the least. He should tell her to leave so everyone could rest as tomorrow would be full of planning and organising but the way his body stirred told him that he might not be finished just yet.

“My preference is to sleep but your preference might not align with that so you can do what you want whilst I am in the restroom.” He said rising from the bed. He was not ashamed of his body nor the scars that covered it as he moved into the restroom. It was only a small room with a toilet inside as the bathing facilities were outside in the form of the sunken bath.

Had he just given her...control?

The slow stretch of a smirk across the blonde's lovely features left her with a myriad of considerations that kept her from watching too closely as he retreated. Several hours ago, she would have appreciated every curve of his sinew and Evanna certainly didn't discredit it now, but she'd been much closer to it in the intervening time and there was a decision to construct. Was she done? Several images flashed across her mind, each more distracting than the last. He'd left her breathless, aching and, after both of them had exchanged laughter as a tangle of tongues, in need of certain hygienic measures to avoid smearing his bed with the scent of him. It wouldn't hurt, before she stepped back out amongst the hounds reeking of him, to make a better job of it.

Pushing away from the door, she moved to the corner, shed her robe to a puddle of chiffon on the floor, and stepped into the bathtub once a brief input of preference set it to fill rapidly with uncomfortably hot water with just a hint of mint, magnolia and birch.

The man stepped out of the restroom without even bothering to comment about the fact she was still there as he checked his PADD for a split second before turning to face her. The messages could wait. He was still meant to be at the party after all.

“Am I invited to this scene or am I just to watch?” He wondered sounding bored from whatever was in the PADD but directed his words toward the woman.

"It's your bathtub." The reminder came as the trickle of water from a bent elbow preceded a lather of soap up the blonde's arm. "And your mess." This brought her gaze up to toy with his, fingers curved for a moment so that the track of nails through the suds along her arm mirrored marks still visible across his shoulders.

“Indeed.” He said in standard, watching her intently. He turned off the water, moving past her. He stepped down into the bath gingerly, careful not to slip but also letting his skin getting acquainted with the warm water. He turned off the tap, knowing that with the both of them there, the water displacement would reach the top of the bath.

Sitting down in the bath, he let out a soft groan. He leaned back against the bath and wall, a stark contrast in temperature. With his legs spread so that she could come and sit between them, he held out his hands to offer her support.

There had been a moment where that moan, reminiscent though decidedly quieter than previous noises he'd made, coaxed Evanna's eye closed for a moment of unobtrusive appreciation. Her own familiar calculated heat locked eyes with him as he reached out and the blonde took a split second to analyse the thoughts it provoked. Complexity like Gregnol's revealed itself between the cracks; tiniest glimmers of light bouncing off such a refracted surface that determining origin was practically impossible. It wasn't much of a stretch to guess he didn't extend his hands in support that often, and though this was arguably just a matter of him grabbing for what he wanted, there was still room to decide if she was willing to immediately oblige every time he beckoned.

She slid her hands into his a turned gracefully so that, by the time she glided across to bridge the gap, her back nestled comfortably against his chest. Then she proceeded to keep rinsing the lather of soap from her arms.

He saw the moment of hesitation and almost smirked at the cogs that were moving in her mind trying to think several steps ahead of his offer. It was nothing more than an offer to help that he never gave normally to many people. “Much nicer than the sonic.” He mused his accent thick even in Russian to Standard. He did not need to make much more comments but the company was nicer as well.

"Wasteful, you mean," though the words came out as a tease. Cupping both hands with water, Evanna scooped enough to deal with most of the lather coating her chest and then eased herself back to settle against the solid curve and reassurance of his chest. The back of her head found the niche between his shoulder and clavicle. "And inefficient." At this point, she was poking fun at herself more than anything else. She was well-aware of her reputation.

"We are bathing together. That is hardly wasteful." He countered just sitting there enjoying the warmth relaxing muscles and old wounds that he had forgotten about for a moment. It was not something he regularly got time for or to enjoy. "If you want to leave the wasteful and inefficiency of it all, you can." He argued, a smirk on his face as he looked down at her.

A flick of water upwards and over Evanna's shoulder from the scoop of her fingers scattered waterdrops at his face in a rare moment of playfulness. "Not my power grid, not my problem." She arched her neck back to look up at him, the top of her head pressed against his sternum, and reached up to draw a damp trail down the line of his nose before readjusting herself back into a more comfortable position and closing her eyes. It was a frivolous flirt, disarming in its excessive flippancy, but it had been a long time since she'd been able to soak in actual hot water. Evanna drew a knee upwards through the suds to brace against slippage and exhaled softly.

He started to gather her long hair in his hand, but she turned to look up at him and got playful which surprised him. “Exactly.” he offered to her and leaned in to give her just a quick, chaste kiss on her lips. he offered to her and leaned in to give her just a quick, chaste kiss on her shoulder. With her hair gathered in his hand, he began to split it into three strands and braid her hair to keep it out of his face, mainly, but also out of his way.

Even under the guise of being in his best interests, it was an act of ministry that seemed unparalleled. A wholly simple gesture, rooted in practicality, and yet the graze of his fingertips through naturally-golden tresses seemed somehow far more intimate than anything they'd shared thus far. It tickled at her scalp, not an unpleasant sensation, and Evanna inched forward enough for him to gather up the strands glued to her back before surprising even herself by remaining upright to let him finish.

She drew her hand, palm-upright, through the water to let it trickle through her fingers.

This was dangerous.

Not because it was him. That had been implicit from the start and, from the moment she'd slipped her arm through his, the Lieutenant had accepted the necessity of keeping a closer watch than usual over both shoulders moving forward. It was this; he had pledged to show off his gentle side and, against all reason, he was uncommonly good at it. Natural suspicion suggested a price to pay for that, eventually.

Evanna lifted a handful of suds to her mouth, craned her head back again to look at him, and blew softly.

He had not brought anything to tie her hair but figured that the braid would hold long enough for him to manage what he wanted to do but his thoughts were lost as the studs landed on his face. He raised an eyebrow at it and wiped the suds away feeling how much he needed a shave already. “Yes?” He wondered flicking her braid over her opposite shoulder.

"Oh, so we're employing reason now, are we?"

She spun then, in slow motion, taking care not to send the resulting disruption of water over the edge. Very careful, intentional movement sought placement for her knees on either side of him and Evanna slide, like a minx, to straddle his lap. The graze of her thumb smeared the last of the suds upwards along his jawline. "And here I thought we had just lost our minds."

“I would say one of us has, yes.” He assured using his free hand to wipe the suds off his face with a shake of his head. “Was it an unpleasant ride to losing your mind?” He challenged moving his arms to the side of the sunken tub just looking at her.

"I wouldn't call it unpleasant." Her chin angled, Evanna watched down the length of her nose as the slide of the back of her fingers against his chin wiped off most of the residual bubbles clinging to her hand. It left him with a goatee. "But then, it was such a long time ago that perhaps my memory has made its own mess of things." She smirked, the twist of her mettle veering away from his snare. "You assume too much credit, umnitsa."

“No. I am not. I just know my worth.” He said simply wiping his face again with a snort as the tickling the bubbles created. She was easy on his mood that night, to say the least, and even easier on his eyes much like Selina in that respect. “Well, I am sure I can remind you if your memory is slipping or get medical to confirm you are fit for duty with such extreme memory lapses.” His hands went to waist instead of settling back on the side of the bath.

He had missed the nuances of her response but that only curved her lips into a deeper smile. Whatever level of craziness Evanna could be accused of; and there was plenty to challenge the repeated assertion of medical evaluation that she was absolutely resoundingly sane, it owed its impetus to a great deal more than one single pinprick amidst the starscape of all her choices. By comparison to the vast total, tonight had been quite...tame.

"No agoniser?" Fingernails started low on his stomach, swirling outwards across the curve of abdominal muscles, upwards to his ribcage. Lazy. Unhurried. "Sounds unreliable to me."

He squeezed her waist as she lazily tried to tease him. “Agonisers are for disobedience, not memory loss.” He said trying to ignore her nails against his skin. It was not so much distracting but focusing his mind down one route again. He was not ruled by that part of his anatomy at all. “It's unreliable but happily remind you if you need it.”

Who needed to tease him when the cataloguing of his dips and swells was so personally satisfying? "Innovation is the root of all progress. I'm sure the agonisers force a degree of clarity that's quite precise." There was no need to pretend she hadn't experienced it; being declared worthy to step up as his Chief hadn't absolved her of the burden of proof of her suitability.

She had a point, to say the least. He made a face to confirm that her point was well made. Being Captain left him aloof sometimes but her comment brought him back to thinking properly. It gave him a sudden idea of how to punish disobedience. “Very precise.” He agreed.

Her hands flattened, spread as an eagle across either side of his ribs, and Evanna smiled; a somewhat out-of-place sincerity given the topic and her current position. "We really are going to have to have a long chat about efficiency one day," she chided him, a huff of laughter harking back to her previous tease on the matter.

"You are wasting hot water right now." He pointed out, chiding her right back. "Turn around." He instructed wanting to just relax and enjoy the warm water. He never got to experience moments like that anymore, it was not something he even considered.

Evanna humoured him. Not because she was especially fond of being ordered around or because she was necessarily concerned about ending up dead in a bathtub if she chose to push him further, but because he had a point. The agreement wasn't distasteful in all cases and being contrary for the sake of it was the realm of children, or at very least, the childish. She didn't move without a coy smile, however, or before the peck of her lips to the tip of his nose dealt with the tiniest amount of soap still clinging to it.

Her shoulderblades nestled back against his chest again.

"There is potential for restructuring of the agonisers' operational protocols, in theory, depending on what you envisage their role to be moving forward. They are effective," Evanna spoke again from personal experience, her head settling beneath his chin, "But parameters that allow for more specified focus, coupled with adequately coded randomisation sequences, eliminate the body's capacity for adjustment and regulation. Sometimes 'hurting everywhere' isn't quite as potent as 'hurting right here'."

It was a perfectly normal bathtub conversation.

He kissed her shoulder again as she spoke, but each kiss was closer to her neck and his lips never quite left her skin as he moved closer, and closer. He did listen to her talking though and replied to her with one of his own thoughts. “Talk to the Interrogators and Ford.” He suggested. “If you have experiments to run I will approve them.” He did not mean just because of this but because her logic was sound.

Her eyes closed, Evanna smiled faintly. Whether it was the result of his approval or his gradual assault on her equilibrium, it had the effect of silencing her nonetheless. A slight turn of her chin stretched her neck, elongated against the trail of kisses to grant access without a demand. In true Belyaev style, it didn't distract her entirely from the topic, nor her anticipation of it as a personally-appealing pursuit, but as far as accompaniments went, it was one of the more pleasant ways to plot the decimation of resolve.

He grinned at the silence that descended on the darkroom. It was welcome to set the mood. The man kissed her neck until he got to her ear and whispered. "What is your next step?" He wondered leaving the interpretation up to her whether it was the here and now with him or with her job.

Beneath the water, her hand drifted to graze fingernails against his outer thigh.

"You know, it's not normally my style but I seem to be faring well enough with improvisation." A turned cheek nuzzled against his nose, a second hand creating symmetrical patterns against his other leg. "Mixed with a healthy dose of premeditated speculation." She would give him that; on at least some level, she had wondered what this would be like. With him. The tip of her tongue flicked out to wet her bottom lip and Evanna exhaled, the turn of her head bringing the corner of her mouth to hover close to his. "Unless you have an order you'd like to issue."

“I know very much that it is not your style at all. I am feeling proud of myself for bringing that out in you” He said as he pulled her into a hard kiss as she was just hovering there. Much like her, he had been wondering for weeks himself what it would be like to be with her and he was sure that he had not had his fill yet. “I do not have any orders yet. Improvise away.” It was still an order though; an order without a direct point.

The first kiss only made the blonde impatient, but since years of impulse control had bred a discipline that ran bone-deep, Evanna rode out the wave of heat that shot through her body from her gut to her temples and simply nuzzled at him again. Fingertips became flat palms kneaded into the flesh at the back of his thigh, just above the knee, then spun inwards to graze the interior of his thighs up to the point where they pressed against her own hips. A tender touch for such a contained woman; she drew it out, seeking proof of arousal as a demanding jab to the small of her back. Convinced, she poured her intensity into the press upwards to demand a kiss of her own. Surrendering a hand to reach back and pull him down closer, Evanna used the momentum to arch her back, twist her hips, and, without breaking the kiss, turned herself around to climb over his thigh and straddle it. Stretching upwards onto her knees allowed her to bear down on him, his face caught between wet hands that held him firm.

He allowed himself to be captured by the intensity of her. It was attractive and quite possibly why he allowed her to continue taking some of his power with every touch and kiss.

"Tebe eto nravitsya?"

Hands sliding to nestle against his jawline, fingers stretched either side of his ears so that her thumbs settled against his temples, Evanna's tone delved into its natural husk, its alto languishing in thick accent. Unhurried, she kissed him as a series of slow caresses interspersed with the smile of a feline playing with its food. The only consideration the slender woman gave to an interruption was a dip backwards, taking advantage of an innate suppleness and flexibility, to drag her hair through the water until it was thoroughly saturated. His braid held but the strands around her face were no longer an interference.

She slid her arms around his neck and considered him from the intimacy of her advantage.

"Ty luchshe tseluyesh'sya, chem ya ozhidal."

The curl of her grin was every bit the mischief her playful temerity had intended.

How could he not like what she was doing to him? Had he not shown her enough? It was easy to ignore that question when he got the view that he did when she leaned back to wet her hair. He shook his head and ran a finger along her chest up to her chin as she looked back at him.

“I should hope my kisses please you. You have had so many over the last few hours. So stop teasing, detka.” He ordered, seeing the mischief in her gaze. While his own gaze was like fire as he watched the woman teasing him without regard; not many women were that free or willing. Definitely something more interesting about her, making him think it was going to be more than a one-night thing.

Had Evanna been privy to his thoughts, she might have cautioned him to survive this one first. But even if she'd been in possession of psionic traits, which she evidently was not, there was distraction unraveling the lithe blonde slowly. This was exactly the same speed with which she slipped down, knees sliding backwards, to glide both hands up his thighs. And, without taking her eyes from his, drew a deep inhalation in through her nostrils before bending forward and attempting to find out how long she could hold her breath.

To his credit, the water was tepid by the time resolution felt final. And Evanna hadn't timed anything but she strongly suspected it was a good deal later because the pair of them had found a surprising synergy and that, in turn, had only protracted and compounded efforts to achieve release because the first time refused to be the last time and, in the end, she'd lost count. She was a...vibrant lover.

And vocal. If they were lucky, nobody had been able to translate.

Still flushed, radiating heat that made the bathwater feel even colder, Evanna eventually eased herself free and drifted backwards in his lap just enough to flatten herself on her back against the water, knees bent. She closed her eyes, untwisted her turbulent hair from its braid to float freely, and smiled as her body left her with no choice but to bask in the euphoria of afterglow for just a moment.

She could leave any time she wanted.