"You're so odd, Damon," he replied, cocking his head slightly after my peacock comment. "But I like you."
"So, does this mean we're back on?" I asked. His appearance already told me the answer, but I think we both needed it to be said. "Do you still want to be my boyfriend?"
"I'm willing to try and see what happens," he nodded.
I felt his hand creep into my hair, just as I was about to let him know that I was glad he thought we could try again. Gently, he tugged my face forward to close the small gap between us, and he swallowed my words with his mouth on mine. The only sound that managed to escape me was a hum as I complied with his silent request. Without breaking the kiss, I slowly repositioned myself so that I was sitting in his lap with my legs wrapped round him and my arms round his neck. One of his hands stayed in my hair and one snaked round my waist as the kissing got heavier. I rocked against him, moving from my waist, feeling dizzy with passion when he mirrored the action.
The amazing feeling of soaring started to take over again, and that's when I felt it. Gravity. Or rather, lack of gravity. It was like having an extra sense; I couldn't taste, smell, touch, see or hear it, but I felt it. We were about to leave the ground, but this time, I didn't stop what we were doing.
Keleon was oblivious to everything except us, and although I wanted to be there as well, part of my focus needed to be on making sure neither of us got injured through falling. I moved my mouth away from his, so that I could at least partly focus on this new 'gravity' sense, and I kissed along his jaw to just below his ear. I gripped the back of his head with my hands and used my mouth on his neck, rocking myself against him as I did. It still felt great for me, but with my mouth away from his, I could focus on not mixing these feelings of lust with the gravity sense. Lust – or rather, getting lost in it – was what triggered the floating. I understood now that I could actively feel it. I guess being able to focus fully on Keleon would require practice at separating the two senses, so for now, I would practice. And hopefully make him feel good in the process. I worked my way back up his neck passionately, still gripping the back of his head.
Apparently, my attempts multi-tasking didn't stop him being fully focused on me.
"Damon," he breathed, with his head tilted back and his eyes closed.
"You OK?" I said gently, right next to his ear as I nibbled it gently.
Keleon was relaxed in my arms, lips parted slightly.
"More than OK," he mumbled. "It's ... "
The next kiss I gave him involved my teeth lightly scraping across his neck, and the action caused his sentence to deteriorate into a throaty noise.
I loved that noise he made. I nearly lost control, and then remembered I needed to concentrate on what I was doing before we found ourselves in the air.
"You're not going to finish the sentence?" I teased as I squirmed in his lap. Rubbing against him made my groin ache, and it felt nice. I closed my eyes and made sure everything around me was tethered to the ground, including us. I kissed my way round the bottom of his neck, to the other side, and kissed him long and hard just below his other ear.
"Do you know ... what that's ... doing ... "
Keleon cut himself off, groaning and holding me into his lap tightly as I scraped my teeth lightly along this side of his neck.
The noises he made were delicious. The way he pulled me into his body turned me on in ways I'd never imagined. I reluctantly forced myself back to reality, reigned in the lust a little bit, closed my eyes and checked we were safely attached to the surface of the planet.
"I have a fairly good idea," I grinned against his neck, excited that I could have this effect on him.
The whole thing reminded me of trying to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time when I was a kid. It was difficult at first, but with a bit of practice, I was convinced I'd probably be able to do this a bit more naturally, and hopefully be able to get as lost in the sensations as my boyfriend was, without causing us to hover above the ground in the process.
I smiled as he whimpered under my touch, and I decided that in the meantime, giving Keleon pleasure had its own rewards. Not just the amazing sounds he was making, or that I could feel how hard he was through our clothes, but the expression on his face was quite possibly one of the sexiest things I'd ever seen.
My hands and lips kept exploring while I practiced the self-control and coordination of my new skill.
And then my stomach growled with hunger.
Keleon stopped abruptly and looked towards the noise.
"You're hungry," he concluded.
"I'm not," I protested.
I moved in to kiss him again, but his hand stopped me.
"When was the last time you ate?" he asked.
"I grabbed some of those orange fruits on the way here. I'm fine," I reassured him, trying to get back to kissing him.
Unfortunately, my stomach growled again, as if it were arguing against me. I mentally willed it to shut the fuck up.
"You haven't eaten properly since before we left for Kikorangi, have you?" Keleon persisted.
I could see I wasn't going to win this one, slipping away from him onto the moss, sighing in defeat.
"Probably not," I grumbled.
Keleon stood up.
"We need to get you something to eat," he said, holding out his hand.
My stomach growled in agreement. As I took his hand and stood up, I noticed that the sun had mostly set now, and the pink glow of the moons had faded somewhat.
"OK," I responded reluctantly.
We started walking, hands interlocked, down the worn path back to the hanger. I grabbed another orange fruit from one of the nearby bushes on the way. They were really quite good.
"So, you don't get hungry, huh?" I asked, taking a mouthful of my snack.
Keleon smiled at me.
"I told you that on the flight back from Selenia."
"Yeah, I remember," I agreed, remembering how I'd interpreted him incorrectly. "Don't you ever eat?"
"There are certain traits I can simulate, or at least that my prevailing body is automatically able to simulate, based on what's expected by my target's subconscious," he explained. "So, I can simulate eating, drinking, breathing and blinking, but I don't need to do any of those things. Breathing and blinking happen automatically because they're functions that the target expects, but not because they're required. Eating and drinking I can choose."
I'd almost finished my orange fruit and was debating whether to pick another one. I decided to wait until we got to the hanger before I had anything else.
"Do you like eating and drinking?" I asked.
"I guess it depends what's on the menu," he replied.
"You like Sunbolts though, right?"
He glanced sideways at me.
"You've been talking to Mia."
"A bit," I confessed with a little grin. "I wanted to understand you better. I still want to understand you better. Is that OK?"
"Of course," he said. "Ask me anything you want to know."
I paused while I tried to think of how to phrase what I wanted to ask.
"So, what we did back there," I nodded behind me. "Were your reactions synthesised, or were you actually enjoying it? I mean, you looked like you were enjoying it."
My face heated up and I could tell I was starting to get a little flustered, so I stopped before I made a total idiot of myself.
"I'm not completely sure how everything works on a technical level," replied Keleon. "My body probably recreated the expected sensations, based on what it picked up from you. But my resulting experience was real. At least, it was real to me." He stopped walking and faced me, taking both my hands in his. "I have no idea whether what I felt back there is what a human would have felt or not. I've never actually been human, so I've got nothing to compare it to. But I can tell you that whatever that was you were doing to me was like nothing I've ever felt before. It was addictive. Stopping to come back and get food was ... difficult."
That told me what I wanted to know.
"I understand. I didn't want to stop either."
I smiled and guided him into the main part of the hanger, and we headed for the food cupboard. Mia was already in there, separating out some of the foods into different bags.
"Hi," she smiled when she saw us. Her smile grew when she noticed our interlocked hands, and her eyebrow lifted a fraction. "You guys OK?" she asked, but I knew she was referring to whether we'd resolved our earlier issues.
"Damon's hungry," replied Keleon, oblivious to the 'real' question.
"You've not eaten?" Mia looked at me, her expression and tone like a mother telling off her child.
"Keleon distracted me," I defended. I knew she'd understand what I meant after our previous discussion.
"That's not entirely true," Keleon corrected me. "You also distracted me. Especially when you..."
"OK, I don't think Mia needs all the details," I interrupted, my face heating up again.
"Yeah, I got the idea," agreed Mia, smirking. "I'm just sorting food to take with us tomorrow to Selenia. Are you happy to grab what you need from round me?"
"We're going tomorrow?" I asked, letting go of Keleon's hand to take a couple of the ration packs and a bottle of water.
"Not you, Damon," she replied. "The rest of us are going. You're staying here."
"I want to go with you."
"You're the one they want, Damon. It's too risky," insisted Mia.
"But I can help," I protested. "I know my way around the building."
"There's no way you're going inside that building," replied Mia.
"Then let me come and stay in the ship," I said.
I couldn't stay on this planet while they went to get Mum, it would drive me insane.
Mia paused while she sorted more food into bags.
"I suggest you talk to Helen in the morning," she responded. "She's gone to bed to get some rest before tomorrow," she continued. "In the meantime, I suggest you do the same."
"OK, thanks Mia," I smiled at her. I grabbed a couple more of the packs and some fruit, before heading towards my storage room. I was delighted when Keleon exited with me and came into my room as if he belonged there. As far as I was concerned, he did. We sat on the blankets together while I ate.
"I'm not sure you should come tomorrow," he said. "I'm worried about your safety."
"And I'm worried about yours," I replied.
"I'm not the one they want," he countered. "They're unlikely to fall for the same trick twice. They must have realised a shapeshifter was involved in your disappearance last time. I took on different forms throughout the building, so presumably they got some interesting security footage."
"All for whatever it is that's in my blood," I shook my head, and opened another pack.
"Talking of which," Keleon continued, "I expected the kissing we did down by the water to have lifted us into the air again. I didn't think about it at the time because ... well ... I wasn't thinking about much at all." I knew that but grinned anyway. "Now that I am thinking about it, shouldn't that have triggered a gravitational distortion?"
"It kind of did," I replied between mouthfuls. "But I felt it and managed to counter it."
"You can control it?" Keleon sounded excited.
"I wouldn't go that far. I can feel it. And if I focus, I can do enough to stop things floating," I explained, finishing my mouthful. "It was the first time I felt it properly, down by the water, and it's hard to explain what it was like. I just kind of knew it was there and could feel how to temper it." I finished my food and cleared up my mess.
"That's pretty cool," remarked Keleon. "Do you think you can control it the other way? When you're feeling angry or upset?"
"No idea," I replied, downing some water. "I guess the only way to find out is the next time I'm angry or upset. Are you planning to upset me?" I teased, crawling over to him.
"No," he replied as I pulled myself into his lap and went to resume where we left off before food. His hand stopped me. "But we're not starting that again."
"Well, that's going to upset me," I pouted.
"You need your sleep."
"You have too much self-control," I grumbled.
"On the contrary," he said. "I don't have enough. Besides," he continued. "You have needs that I don't, and we need to make sure they're catered for. If we start this again, I'm unlikely to want to stop."
I sighed at my overly considerate boyfriend. I knew he was right. I'd find it difficult to stop too, and I was feeling tired.
"OK, you win this time," I conceded with a peck on the lips, before pulling away and putting my head in his lap instead, so that I was looking up at him. He started playing with my hair, which I loved, and I wondered whether I might need to think about the effect this might have on gravity again.
"Can I ask you something?" Keleon broke the silence.
"Sure."
"Why did you kiss me the first time? When we played chess, I mean. I haven't had that effect on anyone before and I'm curious."
"You really don't think you've affected anyone like that before?" I asked in response, and he shook his head. "Mia gave me some extra information about the first time you met her," I continued.
"Like the fact that I enjoy drinking Sunbolts?" he queried.
I smiled up at him.
"That was one of the things, yes," I confirmed. "I mean, she gave me more details about how you distracted your opponents by making them want to kiss you."
"What?" Keleon looked shocked. "That's not true. Nobody has ever kissed me before you did."
I chuckled.
"That doesn't mean they weren't trying, Keleon. Other people have reacted like this to you before. It's just that, presumably, nobody else has had enough time or opportunity to act on it or show you. Trapped on a small craft with you for a couple of days gave me time to try my luck."
"Oh," he said, raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah," I said. "It's not your fault you didn't see that. You're young and inexperienced. Maybe by telling you now, it will help you see what's happening next time."
"Inexperienced, maybe," he said, smiling. "But as I understand it, I'm further into adulthood than you are. I believe you've only just reached maturity?"
I sat up and pushed him lightly, smiling back. "You're seven!" I countered.
"Only if we use your arbitrary counting system," he gently shoved me back, laughing.
We descended into banter and giggles after that, and when we calmed down, I brushed my teeth and curled into him with a blanket. I was so glad we were together, and that this time both of us had made the decision with all the relevant information.
Smiling, I drifted to sleep in Keleon's arms.