Spending Quiet Time

Posted on Wed Mar 20th, 2019 @ 12:48pm by Lieutenant Commander Shaille Levine & Warrant Officer Koh Otassu

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Quarters

Leaving the lounge, Shaille paused at the first moment and turned toward Koh, a genuine smile on her face as she reached up and touched his face lightly. "I've missed you," she said softly, smiling at him.

Pulling her hand away, she fell back into step, walking through the corridors. "Do you want to come back to mine for a while? I mean, it's not really my quarters because they're being 'redone' but I temporarily have somewhere to sleep at least, but no idea how comfortable the couch is," she added with a slight laugh.

He leaned into the touch softly, eyes half closed. She was a welcome reprieve from the party. One could say all the noise bothered him, but it'd be the excuse he would use to get out. "You know, I could always invite you back to my place." he offered with a smile. "I can't promise all the decor of your quarters, though. I can promise fluffy pillows and the comfort of being the guest of a son of Ts'usu." there was something to the way he said that. Being a guest.

"You'll always have someplace to rest." he mentioned again, then he gave a chuckle, "And... having slept in the cockpit of a fighter on several occasions I assure you, the couch would be plenty comfortable." and at that, he smiled.

"I'd love to see your quarters," Shaille said genuinely, her hand slipping into his as they walked. "So what did you think of the crew?" she asked, suppressing a smile. "It was a.... well... interesting evening... wasn't it?"

He gave her a smile, "Oh they're very interesting. Back on the carrier we were all Ts'usugi, with a Dalacari or two mixed in. Here there's so much diversity. So much ... yes, interesting." he chuckled, and gave her hand a soft squeeze. "I think they're an incredible team, and an incredible crew."

With that, the conversation continued on. Just background chat until they got to the pilot's quarters. With a swish the door opened and gave Shaille a view into the world of Koh. Simple quarters, with a few pictures on the walls and simple decorations and decor. He seemed to favor darker colors for his furniture and spreads, and the lighting in his quarters was about three quarters as bright as it was outside. The pictures on the walls were of him and other Ts'usugi. Some dressed as pilots, others casual. Some of the pictures were on a planet of sorts, while most were on a carrier. On his desk were a few models of various space craft. Some unrecognized, others ancient, but all sharing a common theme of flight. Though the cabin was for a single male, it was hardly a bachelor pad. The quarters were neat and organized, as though ready for inspection at any time.

"Welcome to my home. I greet you as a host." he said with a smile. "Stay as long as you wish. You are my guest." Ts'usugi society was steeped in protocol, it sounded.

Glancing around the quarters, Shaille smiled, slipping her boots off and leaving them neatly at the door, a far cry from her usual behaviour in her own quarters where things would usually just end up where they fell. Unzipping her jacket, she shrugged out of it, holding it in her hands as she walked across, looking at the photos. "It's beautiful... Your homeworld?" she asked curiously.

He followed her lead, in a way, removing his boots at the door and letting his feet relax for a moment before catching up with her. "That one there is. I wasn't born on Ts'usu, but I studied there. Made a lot of good friends." he paused, and motioned to one in particular. It was just him, by a park. The sky was somewhere around dusk, but was completely devoid of stars. Koh looked so handsome in his graduation uniform. At least, it looked like a graduation uniform.

"That's me, in my graduation uniform. Sorry about the sky, but rules are rules." he took a breath, "That's Ts'usu. The park, the streets, the mountains in the distance. Some great thinker once said that home is familiar thoughts and feelings, kind words and loving faces. Home is wherever you are. Ts'usu is simply a place to come back to." he said with a chuckle.

"Ts'usu is wherever you are. That's the saying I like the most." he gently reached up and put a hand on her shoulder, "Ts'usu is here." as he gently reached up to caress her cheek.

Shaille smiled at him, a feeling of warmth rushing over her at both his words and his touch. "We have a similar saying," she said quietly. "Home is where your heart lies..." She paused momentarily, before she looked up into his eyes, the lackluster eyes that captivated her so much. "My heart lies with you."

He smiled at her world's anecdote, and wider at her own. He leaned in gently, ever so softly placing his forehead against her's. "To think, if we said no to drinks that night, it might have been an entire month before either of us asked the other out for a drink." he smiled, eyes closed, just enjoying her closeness. Her contact.

"I never thought I'd say this but, thank the Emperor for whiskey that night." a pause, "But... never again." he added with a smile.

Shaille closed her eyes, her fingertips tracing slowly from his ear down along the side of his face, before finally resting on his shoulder, her thumb tracing lazily just above his collar as she smiled, content. Finally, after a long moment, she pulled away just enough that she could turn, leaning back against his chest and pulling his arms around her, maintaining their closeness as she turned her attention back to the photos in his quarters. "Do you have photos of your family?" she asked quietly.

He would give a nod, but as she turned to put her back against him he responded by resting his chin upon her head. It seemed more a reflex than an actual set of movements, perhaps it was something they found comforting. "I do. I keep them in the kitchen, mostly because it feels weird with them watching me sleep." he admitted with a smirk. He lead her gently to the mess, a simple area just west of a replicator unit and he retrieved a picture actually in a frame. There were six people in the frame, four male and two female. All of them wore soft smiles, dressed casual but still with a sense of decorum, and the batch of them just seemed to fit. That weird way that only family can do.

"That's all of us together at a lantern festival. Local villages liked to set lanterns up into the sky as a way of celebrating. The joy of birth, the remembrance of death. We'd celebrate all of these together." he explained, before he pressed a finger against the picture and swiped to the next, where it was just the three boys. Finding Koh was easy: He had the splotch of white fur around his eye. "Those are my brothers, Shin and Towa. They're where I get most of my mischief from. They're also both older than me, so all their tricks didn't work by the time I was old enough to use them." he admitted. "Shin was infantry for a few years. Saw some skirmishes with the Kholdarans. Took a hit in a lung, but he's fine." he wanted to stress that part.

Another swip on the picture showed the two ladies from earlier, "That's mom, and my sister Ala. She actually taught me everything I know about cooking. Mind you most of the ingredients I'm most familiar with are a bit out of reach, but I make due. She'd approve."

There were more pictures of them together. Some of all of them, others just single subject photos. In the background there were other Ts'usugi, some form of simple paper lantern being lifted by presumably a candle or some other small heat source. Behind that, a mountain range illuminated by moonlight, in a sky devoid of stars. Ts'usugi Information Suppression at its finest.

It was obvious from the pictures that he cared about his family a lot. As he set the frame aside, Shaille turned to face him, smiling as she reached up, brushing her thumb over the patch of white fur around his eye. "Well, after seeing the pictures of your family, I can see where you get your incredible good looks from," she teased lightly, trailing her thumb down his cheek before pulling her hand away.

That had become one of her favourite things about spending time with him. The touch... the little touches, the signs of affection, of comfort. "So the lantern festival celebrates both life and death, do you celebrate individual birthdays as well?" she asked curiously.

He closed his white patch eye, just as a reflex for her thumb getting close. At her compliment he smiled, "I'm certain father would thank you."

"Oh certainly, we just don't drag out the whole town. Okay, we USUALLY don't drag out the whole town to celebrate one birthday. But if you're the town magistrate or the local adjunct to the Imperial Records Commission then, yeah, when your kid has a birthday the whole town celebrates it. Though, us ordinary folk who aren't high and mighty..." he chuckled, "... friends and family. Small stuff. Cake. I... I don't know how it would translate, but little hollow effigies of monsters or invaders stuffed with sweets that you whack with a stick."

"Pinata's," Shaille replied with a laugh. "My family never really did a lot for birthdays. Growing up on a starship there was not always a lot of kids around and then with both my parents working all the time," she shrugged slightly. "Definitely nothing as grand as a whole town celebrating. I did get a pinata once, It was a unicorn. The first time I swung at it, I completely missed. My brother, Noah, teased me so I whacked him with the stick instead. He spent the rest of the night in bed with concussion and I was grounded for months and never allowed near another pinata." A faint smile played at her lips as she recounted the memory.

"He still reminds me of that every chance he gets. One of the last communications I had from him had photos of my niece's birthday party, they're twins, Chloe and Maddison, they had just turned 8 and they had a huge party with bouncy castles and cake and ice cream and everything, and he included photos of their pinatas, he told me he thought he was safe given I was in the Delta Quadrant."

He gave a curious head tilt. "Bouncy Castles? Okay, that's a reference I don't get."

"Uhmmm... giant canvas type 3 dimensional castle filled with air that small children can bounce on for fun?" Shaille tried to explain.

That actually got him thinking. "A... big fabric castle, full of air..." he thought, and the more he thought about it, the more absurd the idea seemed, and the more absurd the idea seemed the more it amused him. Soon, he was chuckling at the notion.

"Oh, I'm probably way off the mark but... but that sounds hilarious." a pause, "We should try it sometime." he suggested with that smile. "But, okay... so your word for it is ... Pinata." he had a little trouble with the Spanish 'nya' sound, but got it around the third time. "That's a fun word to say. I mean, it really just sums up the fun of the whole event." he actually was having a lot of fun with this.

"Terran is such a fun language. You have so many interesting words." he complimented. "And so many diverse accents."

"I don't know, I much prefer Ts'usugi, it sounds much more melodic, almost beautiful, especially coming from you," Shaille smiled, then laughed suddenly. "Sorry, that sounded really corny didn't it?" she said with a grin. "It wasn't intended, I've heard Terran languages so much, it's nice to hear something different, and, well, it's you." She reached up and brushed her fingers along his face again. "I find you absolutely fascinating," she finally said quietly.

Koh gave a smirk, and restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "First, it's Ts'usugibito. Or at least, I think it translates to Ts'usugibito." he said in a hush. Like this was a big secret.

"Bito means The Words Of. So to us, Federation Standard is Earth's language, and Terra is a better name for Earth than Earth, cause who calls their world Dirt?" he teased, "So Federation Standard would be Terrabito. Which sounds like a food. So fitting for humans." he chuckled, but reeled himself back in. "It did sound corny, but you make it sound pleasant enough, so I'll find it in my heart to forgive you." he said with another smile.

"Did you want to learn some? I don't know how much I can get away with teaching you before I get in trouble, cause with the current government of Ts'usu we're not in a big 'sharing' mood. But a few key phrases will never hurt." he offered, his eyes closed as she brushed his face.

"I find you calming. Comforting. I feel safe here with you." he responded to her declaration.

Closing the small gap between them, Shaille put her arms around him, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes. "Good," she whispered softly, any thought of languages momentarily forgotten.

The heartbeat of a Ts'usugi was powerful and naturally quick. His heart raced as they held each other close, a strong and noble heart pounding within a crystalline cage of bone. No more words were needed, as he gently rest his head against her's. His arms around her, holding... comforting... but never constraining. Never constricting. Every touch, every caress, every moment. Bliss.

"Stay." he offered, a single word with the weight of the universe behind it.

"Always," she murmured softly into his chest. She didn't open her eyes, just remained in his arms, listening to the sound of his heart beating, savoring the warmth that was just him, a small smile playing at her lips as she remained content in the comfort of his arms. "Always."

=/\=

Warrant Officer Koh Otassu
Fighter Pilot
USS Wellington

Lieutenant Shaille Levine
Chief Security Officer
USS Wellington